6 March, 2026

In Tower Hamlets, one of London’s most deprived boroughs, a quiet corner where tower blocks meet terraced streets has become an unlikely oasis: the Bromley by Bow Centre. Good Business has a long-standing connection here: our very first client project with Gtech, 30 years ago, supported the creation of the Community Action Network, whose first project provided early support to the Centre. This week, we took visitors from Sweden’s Southeast Healthcare Region, Sydöstra sjukvårdsregionen, to explore this community-led model of healthcare.  

What began as small coffee meetings in a former church hall in the 1980s has grown organically into a pioneering hub that brings together primary healthcare, social support, arts, skills development and community activity. 

As you arrive, the garden catches your eye first, followed by the buildings themselves. This is deliberate. Co-designed by architects and the local community, the Centre avoids the visual language of typical NHS spaces, creating permeable boundaries between the street, the garden and the services inside to signal that everyone is welcome. This reflects its mission: to enable people to be well and live life to the full in a vibrant community. 

Across three acres, this ethos becomes a lived reality. The Centre was one of the early pioneers of social prescribing. Someone arriving for a GP appointment can go directly to a social prescriber, who helps them navigate housing, benefits or financial issues, or connects them with employment support, training, digital skills or the Centre’s food pantry. Creative studios, gardening groups, counselling sessions and gentle physical activity coexist, supporting health in the fullest sense: confidence, skills, social networks and a sense of possibility. By focusing on the social determinants of health, the Centre supports both clinical needs and broader wellbeing, preventing issues before they become more serious. 

Crucially, most things at the Centre are shaped and sustained by the community. Participants host and co-facilitate groups, tend the garden and spark new ideas in everyday conversations. This shared ownership gives the Centre its character, less like a service and more like a living neighbourhood asset, made possible by a team motivated by the mission and confident that progress is possible. Their approach recognises how local history and lived experience shape the community’s needs. 

Before we left, the team shared their guiding ethos built on experience: belief and drive matter as much as strategy; waiting for the perfect system means never acting; and change begins by doing. They emphasised that progress starts small, requires honesty about shortcomings and depends on continual learning, listening and collaboration. Even the most transformational models can begin with something as simple as coffee meetings. 

By Hillevi Fock