Architecture Update: Home under threat

THE award-winning architects Evans and Shalev, whose recent Tate of the West in St Ives, Cornwall, was praised by the Prince of Wales, are battling to save one of their earlier buildings from demolition. Next month, the London Borough of Camden plans to blow up the Home for the Physically Handicapped, St John's Wood. The home, built between 1972 and 1976, provides accommodation for 30 severely handicapped adults. The council says the home is no longer needed because of the Government's care in the community policy. Eldred Evans has told next month's issue of the RIBA Journal that to demolish the home would be 'scandalous and a huge waste of public resources. People are lying on their backs in bed. What are they supposed to do once the building is gone?' Ms Evans also criticised Camden council for refusing to put the building on the open market for alternative uses.