Former Chief Executive Paul Mitchell has written the Transform History. Here he talks about our second property Gadd House, now known as Hawkins House...
The second project was launched at the end of 1972 and was initially named Gadd House, in Farnham. This property was an existing working man’s hostel.
Bruce told me of the Dickensian conditions when he visited – iron beds with dirty blankets in dormitories, virtually no lighting with a few hanging light bulbs, torn curtains hanging between beds, loose bits of lino on the floorboards, and a dreadful smell – this is where up to 40 men lived, ate and slept even in early 1972.
These conditions would see major improvements from Bruce and the team.
Gadd House is a Grade 2 listed building. It was a hotchpotch of construction from 1700 or earlier, with Georgian and Victorian additions. The rear of the building was used as the Farnham workhouse up until 1791 when a new workhouse was built in the east of the town.
While under SCDT the property provided accommodation for people with a history of offending up until Since that time, it has been a home to those recovering from substance and alcohol misuse. It was renamed Hawkins House after Graham Hawkins who oversaw this new initiative for SCDT in 1988.
