Labour accuses Mayor Garbett of claiming credit for gym plans it drew up

Hackney’s opposition group has cast doubt on the new Mayor’s claim to have repurposed an “empty” council building as part of her community wealth-building project.

On 22 June, the council announced that Christopher Addison House, which had “stood largely empty for six years”, would be transformed into a gym and fitness studio serving residents affected by the closure of King’s Hall Leisure Centre for a major refurbishment.

The council said this marked the first building to be “brought back to life as part of the Who Owns Hackney investigation”, a scheme Mayor Zoë Garbett launched soon after her election victory in May with the aim of reclaiming spaces for community benefit.

‘Discussed before the elections’

However, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) has been told the plans predate the new administration.

A spokesperson for the Hackney Labour group said: “We are aware of the Mayor’s investigation into buildings in Hackney, and welcome the Mayor’s support for our plans — discussed before the elections in May — to turn part of Christopher Addison House into a temporary gym.”

On Thursday (2 July) Garbett said: “While plans for a temporary gym were initiated previously, it is now being delivered by the new administration as a priority — a sign of our commitment to getting things done, and showing how our investigation can repurpose spaces for public good.”

The Who Owns Hackney project, promised by the Greens in their manifesto, proposes an audit of land use in the borough, a review of how the council’s own buildings are used and a “full assessment of options for bringing empty spaces back into use”.

Six years of limited use

Christopher Addison House, named after the former Shoreditch MP, was built in 1993 and for many years used as one of the council’s offices.

It underwent significant refurbishment in 2019 to create a “modern working environment” for 420 council staff, with plans to lease out the remaining floors and generate at least £700,000 for the council.

However, the leasing faced significant delays and the council made only limited use of the building from 2020.

After the refurbishment of King’s Hall was signed off in 2025, the Labour administration pivoted to using the floors as a temporary facility for gym users.

In June, the council said the new centre would offer a gym — including free weights, resistance and aerobic equipment — as well as studio space for exercise classes, across three floors.

The facility will be operated by Better and is due to open in early August.

Christopher Addison

The building’s namesake was a Hoxton doctor turned social reformer. Christopher Addison (1869–1951) was a distinguished physician — he became Professor of Anatomy at Sheffield and gave his name to a feature of human anatomy, the Addison plane — before the slum conditions of the Hoxton he practised in drew him into politics.

He was elected the area’s Liberal MP in 1910 and, as an ally of David Lloyd George, championed causes including the 1911 National Insurance Bill, women’s suffrage and free school meals for the poorest children.

As the country’s first Minister of Health, Addison gave his name to the Housing and Town Planning Act 1919 — the “Addison Act” — which empowered councils to build subsidised homes at controlled rents, prefiguring the modern council house.

He resigned in 1921 and lost the renamed Shoreditch seat in 1922, later returning to Parliament as Labour MP for Swindon and, after the Second World War, steering Attlee’s reforms through the House of Lords as a viscount.