What is your favourite historic disinfecting centre?
You don’t have one? Us neither. They are a forgotten part of early 20th century life, to the point where just one municipal disinfecting station remains in England. It’s right here in Hackney, and it’s now endangered.
Disinfecting centres were set up by local councils in the Victorian and Edwardian eras as hubs against infectious disease. In an age before vaccines, thousands died each year from smallpox, diphtheria, scarlet fever and even measles. 16 in every 100 births would end tragically, mostly caused by diseases that are preventable today.
The disinfecting centres were set up to steam-clean the homes and belongings of families exposed to such diseases, in a bid to limit contagion. In its first year, the Hackney disinfecting centre, on Millfields Road, Clapton, treated 2,800 homes. The site continued to be used for healthcare purposes through most of the 20th century, but it has stood empty and forgotten now for decades.
According to the Victorian Society, the Grade II-listed building is at serious risk from dereliction. It is campaigning for the site to be preserved “through a sensitive sale and reuse”. It may not be architecturally distinguished, but the old disinfecting station is the last surviving example in the country. As such, it must be retained.
The building is one of ten — and the only London structure — to feature in the Victorian Society’s Top 10 Endangered Buildings 2026. The full list, in chronological order, comprises:
- Former Library and Mechanics Institute, Devonport, 1843-44
- New Market Hall, Bridgnorth, 1855-1859
- Former Strand Railway Station and Railway Men’s Club, Barrow in Furness, 1863
- Parndon Hall, Harlow. Grade II, Possibly Joseph Clarke, 1867
- Faenol (Vaynol) Mausoleum, Pentir, late 1870s.
- Derby School of Art, Derby, 1876 with additions 1899
- Oakes School, Huddersfield, 1885
- St Michael’s RC Cemetery Chapel, Sheffield, 1898
- Hackney Borough Disinfecting Station, London, 1901
- Tees Transporter Bridge, Stockton-on-Tees/Middlesbrough, 1911
