Maggie's Centre at the Western General Hospital is the inspiration of the late Maggie Jencks who's vision was for a place cancer sufferers could go to get help and solace as well as access to independent and alternative sources of advice and treatment. Activities range from single and group counselling, beauty therapy, yoga and relaxation but above all the centre is a social meeting place where experiences can be shared.
The brief was, to a degree, indeterminate, and developed through close liaison with the client. The design aimed to create firstly an atmosphere of domesticity (in contrast to the institutional nature of many National Health Service buildings) and secondly, to create as much accommodation as possible within the limited volume available and to make it transformable in its spatial division; the centre is capable of being combined into a series of progressively larger spaces or divided into individual rooms.
The building consists of the original conversion of a disused stable building completed in 1996 and later extensions completed in 2001(see phase II).
Externally the construction is viewed as a building within a building with a new inner language of steel, lead, glass, glass blocks and timber sliding behind stone. When the extension was commissioned this existing language was extracted in both directions to continue the language.
Link to Cancer Caring Centre, Phase II
| Architects | Richard Murphy, Ed Hollis, Oliver Chapman |
| Engineers | David Narro Associates |
| Contractor | Peter Walker |
| Construction Cost | £128,000 |
| Client | Maggie Keswick Jencks Cancer Caring Trust |
