Torture treatment centre opens

The centre has curved walls and a is painted lilac

A specially-designed centre to treat the victims of torture opened in north London on Tuesday.

The £5.8m centre has curved corridors, natural lighting, wooden floors and large rooms, in an attempt to appear "safe and welcoming".

Funds have been raised by the charity, the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture.

Its patron, the former Beirut hostage John McCarthy, opened the complex in Finsbury Park.

Architects RyderHKS tried to avoid an "institutional" feel, particularly in consulting rooms.

'Degrees of distress'

Company president Paul Hyett said: "From the beginning it was important to understand that this building was going to be receiving people who were in varying degrees of distress.

"We had to guard against using shapes, or materials, with unpleasant connotations."

The Medical Foundation provides treatment, psychological support and assistance to torture victims.

Last year it helped more than 2,100 people from nearly 100 countries.

Mr McCarthy and another hostage, Brian Keenan, were held in a room, blindfolded and shackled to a radiator, for more than four years after being kidnapped in Lebanon in April 1986.