Hundreds turned out yesterday to celebrate the official opening of the architectually ambitious Sir Ludwig Guttman Health and Wellbeing Centre.

Newham Recorder: The Sir Ludwig Guttmann Health and Wellbeing centre on the Olympic parkThe Sir Ludwig Guttmann Health and Wellbeing centre on the Olympic park (Image: Archant)

The innovative health centre for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, now transformed into a multi-purpose centre for Newham residents, was aptly ushered in by former Newham boy Ade Adepitan, the paralympic basketball superstar, as well as Sir Ludwig Guttman’s daughter, Eva Loeffler.

“If somebody has told me 25 years ago that Newham would have transformed into this beautiful place I wouldn’t have believe them,” said Ade, who moved with his family to Newham from Nigeria after he contracted Polio at 15 months.

The centre, which hosts a GP service for 7,000 patients, as well as a branch of Homerton sports injury and musculoskeletal medicine clinic Homerton, serves the emerging community of East Village, as well as the London borough of Newham. A monitoring service for Newham glaucoma patients, currently seen at other Moorfields sites in London, is also planned for the site.