Margaret Pyke Centre

Name :

Margaret Pyke Centre

Address  :

Archway Centre,
681-689 Holloway Road

Town  :

London

State  :

Greater London

Country  :

UK

Post Code:

N19 5SE

Phone  :

(020) 3317 5497

Web URL  :

Available

Email  :

rosemarymassouras@margaretpyke.org

Description

Introduction
The Margaret Pyke Centre MPC is one of the biggest contraceptive centres in the world seeing between 600 and 900 patients per week In addition we have a network of clinics across Brent Camden and Islington in Central London Over a 12 month period the whole service carries out approximately 75000 consultations

The Centre and Community clinics are managed by Camden Provider Services

The Margaret Pyke Trust MPT is the registered charity which founded the
Margaret Pyke Centre and supports the work of its Research and Training departments

History

History of the Margaret Pyke Centre amp Trust
In the early 1920s a few brave and intelligent women and even fewer men set up five societies to promote and provide birth control In 1930 these societies organised themselves into a body called the National Birth Control Council NBCCThe first meeting was held in a drawing room in London The drawing room belonged to Lady Denman a splendid woman wealthy and influential She and later her children and grandchildren have given the birth control movement generous and unfailing support

Lady Denman chose a young married woman Margaret Pyke as the NBCCs first secretary She was the only staff but with the help of volunteers she soon became its essential organiser At the same time she was bringing up her nine year old son David he often played in the office while she worked and was especially interested in her dictaphone on which she dictated her answers to anxious correspondents Margaret worried sometimes that her son might listen in to information which he was too young to require but he gave her no worries when he grew up he became a consultant physician and founder Trustee of the Margaret Pyke Centre

Because of disapproval for the subject of birth control in 1939 the Council changed its name to the fpa Family Planning Association Gradually attitudes changed medical support increased and the movement begun to gain acceptance

Lady Denman died in 1954 By this time the Association had developed a network of clinics and the subject of family planning was respectable Margaret Pyke was the obvious successor to Lady Denman as Chairman of the fpa There was still much to be done and Margaret Pyke proved an ideal Chairman leading the fpa without pushing it and using her initiative with balance and judgement

By the time Margaret died in 1966 she had worked in the family planning movement for 36 years Her friends colleagues and family decided to found a model training centre for family planning in her memory A Charitable Trust was set up by her son Dr David Pyke and her friend Lady Medawar who had succeeded her as Chairman of the fpa and became the Trusts Director Money was given by the Wates Foundation the Burrell and Kleinwort families the International Planned Parenthood Federation and by friends and clinics all over the country The Margaret Pyke Centre MPC was started in the headquarters of the fpa in 27 Mortimer Street in London The Duke of Edinburgh officially opened it on November 27th 1969

When the Centre started in 1969 the Margaret Pyke Trust paid all its expenses with contributions from clients In 1976 the NHS included and paid for contraception as a normal part of medicine when the clinic was NHS funded the Trust was able to concentrate on education training and research as it continues to do so today