November 2021

Designing for Mental Health

As part of a strategic plan to move mental health crisis facilities out of Hospital A&E departments and into appropriate specialist care facilities continuing 24-hour services, we are working with Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust on a new Mental Health Crisis Assessment Services Centre relocating from St Pancras Hospital to Highgate, North London. The project is part refurbishment, part retention and part new build.

The idea is to carefully reuse some of the original building plates and structure, saving materials and cost, it introduces the new build above and adjacent to existing buildings. We have carried out initial key stakeholder consultation and feasibility studies to secure a good location for the new building within the estate.  Hunters has been working with the Trust on a design which not only sits comfortably with the original Victorian buildings but provides a contemporary facility for mental health with secure inpatient facilities and access to outside space.

Once the current facility at St Pancras Hospital is relocated the original site will make way for the new Moorfields Eye Hospital development.