Avon House

Image: © Bob Harvey Taken: 7 Aug 2022

One of the blocks of homes that form a "retirement village" in Market Harborough calling itself the Welland Quarter. I really don't know what to think about this sort of thing - at the tail of one's life as mobility fails it is disturbing to me to be dependent upon elevators to access one's home. What if there is a fire? These homes are "sold" on an assured tenancy, so the capital accumulated in a lifetime goes as rent to a property speculator, not passed on to one's children. And they are not nursing homes. No promise is made of medical support beyond the most superficial provision of call systems in most such blocks. I understand that at extremis one is sometimes expected to move out of such properties. Nor is there much car parking available, although a paid car park for visitors can be seen at Image That said, the properties themselves are described as luxurious, and if I recall the almshouses that used to be provided for the elderly that cannot be denied. The design is a modern one, but sympathetically uses the red brick that was used throughout the former industrial buildings on the site, and has some continuity of texture, if not form, with the rest of the town.

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0