New flagship centre in Brent to bring benefits to homeless people and the community

15 July 2010

A landmark new centre in Brent will bring together services for homeless people and the community - with a tree at the heart of the building, highlighting its focus on growth and recovery.

Pound Lane Centre with a tree at its heartThe St Mungo's Pound Lane centre is an innovative, light-filled, environmentally friendly building designed from scratch on the site of a previous hostel.

It provides living accommodation for 85 homeless people, comprising 48 hostel beds, 23 semi-independent rooms, and 14 self-contained studio flats for people with different levels of skills and need. First residents are moving in this month.

As well as accommodation, the centre will be a place for residents and community groups to take part in social and skills activities, from IT training to cookery, health, exercise and art classes. There will be a focus on offering people access into training and employment - Café 115 in the foyer, for instance, will be a training place where St Mungo's clients can learn catering skills through company Caterplus.

Pound Lane centre in BrentAs a place of change where people can recover from homelessness, the new building has been designed by Churchill Hui Architects, with an emphasis on natural materials.

A fig tree has been planted at the heart of the main building, while several roofs have sedum grass sown on top of them and there will be 'living walls' of climbing plants. Residents will also be encouraged to grow their own vegetables on site, building on the success of St Mungo's ten year old Putting Down Roots gardening programme for homeless volunteers.

A 78-bed hostel previously stood on the site, in a building which also served at one time as a base for territorial army soldiers.

St Mungo's undertook the £9.2 million refurbishment in partnership with Brent Council, which supported the scheme for funding through the Homes and Communities Agency's Places of Change programme.

Pound Lane community rooms are set to be used by Brent Adult Education Services and Brent Age Concern as well as a new social enterprise called Punch and Juicy - a business set up by a St Mungo's client which aims to make and sell smoothies in Café 115.

Charles Fraser, Chief Executive of St Mungo's, said: "Pound Lane is a flagship building, purpose-built to provide a special combination of high quality facilities that will be of benefit to both residents and the local community. It's an uplifting place, which we hope will be a haven for many people as they journey from distressing to better times in their lives.

"We look forward to welcoming many local neighbours and community groups into the centre over the coming months to see Pound Lane for themselves and help us make it grow into a real asset for Brent."

Councillor Bobby Thomas, Lead Member for Housing and Customer Services at Brent Council, said: "The completed centre will greatly improve standards of accommodation for homeless people in the borough and increase the range of services available to support their future including access to accommodation, work and education. This, in turn, will improve their life and their life chances."

Architect Alex Murray of Churchill Hui was the concept designer. His vision was "to create a relaxed, contemporary and welcoming atmosphere", eliminating the isolating effect and institutional feel found in some hostels by creating the "heart" at the centre.

Architect Brian Welsh of Buller Welsh then took the project to completion. He said: "From our first review of the concept drawings, we were instantly excited by the detail design challenges involved in delivering a building of such striking high quality. The design form is a considered riot of shape and colour. The building creates an environment with an infectious 'feel good' factor, which we believe will have a positive influence on the process of rehabilitation for the residents."

David Lunts, HCA director for London said: "It's great to see our Places of Change programme helping to improve the quality of vulnerable people's lives.

"The HCA is fully committed to helping rough sleepers find access to permanent housing and this new facility in Brent is a prime example of the great things that are possible when we work together with a shared goal."

ENDS

Update - see Financial Times article, 28 Aug 'Architecture of transformation'

NOTES TO EDITOR

  • St Mungo's opens doors for homeless people. Mainly based in London and the South, we provide emergency accommodation, support towards recovery and helping to prevent rough sleeping. We run over 100 projects and help thousands of people make life changes every year.
  • Places of Change is an £80m capital improvement funding programme managed by the Homes and Communities Agency, which seeks to improve services for people who are homeless. It aims to identify, encourage, engage and release their potential to enable them to move on with their lives. It encourages service users to get involved in services that will help them turn their lives around.
  • The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) is the single, national housing and regeneration delivery agency for England. Our role is to create opportunity for people to live in high quality, sustainable places. We provide funding for affordable housing, bring land back into productive use and improve quality of life by raising standards for the physical and social environment.

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