Shoreditch Healthy Living Centre

A lovely community resource!

I'm so impressed with these types of opportunities provided in the UK, as nothing like this really exists in the US. Really cool, and aimed squarely at health and life enrichment for those living nearby.

I was first introduced to the Shoreditch Healthy Living Centre as part of my NCT course -- where one of the days was held here. It's a bright, clean space with nice facilities. I attended a 3 hour workshop here and really enjøyed it. Also, I adore NCT -- another review to write!

The second time I visited was to see the midwives right after my baby was born. Lucky me the Homerton Hospital Maternity Care Centre operates out of the ground floor here as well. I was able to pop over for the clinic and see the midwives when my babe was 4 weeks old for a general check, weight, etc. Saved me a long trek to Homerton, really convenient and essential as we were still recovering. Again, really liked the place and the staff was very friendly. It was on this visit that I realized how much was offered out of this centre...so I did a bit more digging!

From their website:

"Shoreditch Trust opened a purpose built Healthy Living Centre in autumn 2009, which aims to improve the health and wellbeing of people living or working in City & Hackney and surrounding areas.Conveniently located a short walk from Old Street, Kingsland Road and other overground transport links, the Centre is ideally placed in the heart of the community.

It is a visible, high quality, accessible resource, that supports and inspires people to prioritise their own and their families' health and that makes a substantial contribution to improvement in quality of life in an area of health inequality.

A range of services are offered at the Centre including:
*complementary therapies
*small group body movement exercises
*healthy cook & eat sessions
*smoking cessation
*mental wellbeing sessions
*one to one coaching.
*Bump Buddies
*Good Food Programme.
*Low Cost Therapies Available


Minus a star because I tried to schedule some appointments (prenatal massage, acupuncture) and no one ever emailed me back. Lesson learned, call or pop in to schedule. Better results surely follow...I was quite overwhelmed at the time so I didn't have the energy to chase them. Now I do, though!

Worth checking out.

Avoid nurse called Chloe at the Shoreditch Maternity Centre! She doesn't know how to do blood tests, she tightened my upper arm with a rubber glove instead of a tourniquet saying "this will do just fine" and it didn't. She then put the needle in but missed the vain. On other occasion when she did succeed with the blood test, my arm went black the next day. Her desk is very untidy, surely staff like this must not be allowed to deal with pregnant patients. A one star is too many for this service.