Highbury Corner Tree Protection Camp

Protesters have been occupying this site since October trying to protect 7 mature trees which are due to be felled to make way for a block of 16 private flats and 25 social rent flats.  The bailiffs moved in at 6am this morning and evicted the protesters from their tree platforms and tents.  You can see workers in high viz jackets demolishing the site inside a fence with a police guard.  However, it has now emerged that the protesters say that they have built a tunnel under the site, like the one that has been built at Euston Station to protest against HS2.  Personally I am always on the side of mature trees, but I might feel differently if I desperately need social housing  in Highbury.

I took the shot as we drove past it on the way for me to have my jab at the John Scott Health Centre (extra) in Stoke Newington.  What an organisation!  So many well-trained volunteers, everything working like clockwork.  I got my jab from a semi-retired GP who said that recently she has been working in mental health, but she was really enjoying doing something so immediate and important, for which all her patients were so grateful.

The John Scott Health Centre doesn't look much but it was the first purpose-built health centre in Britain.  The foundation stone was laid by Health Minister Aneurin Bevan in 1949.  At the time it was a model health centre for the future, built in handmade brick with Critall windows in plain Modernist style and set in a green lawn.  John Scott was the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council.  Today the Centre houses two GP practices and a wide variety of specialist medical clinics, and, for the last fortnight, a vaccination centre.