After 65 weeks, construction of Southend’s only adult hospice has finished and been marked with the laying of a time capsule in the grounds at Priory Crescent in Prittlewell.
The new £17.2 million facility was officially handed over to Chief Executive of Havens Hospices, Steve Smith at an event attended by members of the construction team and staff of the new Fair Havens Hospice.
Designed by LSI Architects and built by Barnes Construction, the new building provides a modern hospice with 16 in-patient bedrooms, increased Day Hospice services and additional family support, which means it can care for twice as many patients and families and offer more treatments and support more families in a welcoming and therapeutic environment.
Mr Smith says, “This new adult hospice for Southend has been many years in the planning. However, thanks to Barnes Construction they were able to bring the plans to life in just 15 months along with LSI Architects and Studio 31 which designed the outside space.
“This official handover of the building from Barnes Construction to Havens Hospices is the culmination of the hard work of hundreds of people from both organisations, from fundraisers to builders and dozens of other trades in between.
“It’s an honour to be here marking this occasion by burying a time capsule which not only contains memories of our past hospice care but our hopes for the future.”
Mark Hart, Joint MD for Barnes Construction adds, “The construction team has worked extremely hard to hand over the building as promised. We now send our good wishes to Havens Hospice and hope that this excellent facility now enables them to care and support more patients and their families in the local community.”
The photograph shows, from left to right, William Barnes and Mark Hart (Barnes Construction), Chris Lappin (LSI Architects), CEO Steve Smith (Havens Hospice), David Faichney (Barnes Construction), Pearl Naylor (Havens Hospice), Steven Rouse (Barnes Construction), Chair of Trustees Brian Terry (Havens Hospice) and Louise Knights (LSI Architects)