Apprentice host Lord Alan Sugar donned working boots to inspect Jewish Care’s planned new development on Woodford Bridge Road, set for completion in summer 2026.
The entrepreneur, a long-time supporter of the charity, joined philanthropist Sir Gerald Ronson for a visit to the old site of Sinclair House, originally built in 1969, now being repurposed into a state of the art care and community campus to serve the Jewish community in Essex and north east London.
Jewish Care received planning permission for the project in October 2023, and is now appealing for more funds via its first ever community fundraising campaign, titled Always Essex.
Championing the project, Lord Sugar, born and raised in Hackney, east London, said: “Please contribute to this magnificent project because it’s your parents, or grandparents and maybe even you one day, who are going to need this wonderful facility.”
L to R Jewish Care Trustee Jonathan Rose, John Burns, Hayley Ronson and Sir Gerald Ronson on a site tour of Jewish Care’s new campus
Jewish Care chief executive Daniel Carmel-Brown said: “We were delighted to welcome members of the Sugar and Ronson families, our cornerstone donors, along with key members of the Redbridge community, for a tour of our new first-class care and community campus for north east London and Essex.”
Jewish Care’s Redbridge care and community campus is progressing swiftly. Pic: Jewish Care
The ‘Always Essex’ fundraiser will raise the additional funds to help complete Jewish Care’s fourth development hub.
The new, modern, and fully accessible care and community campus includes The Sugar Family Care Home, a 66-bed care home to replace Jewish Care’s Vi & John Rubens House care home in Gants Hill which was built in 1982, and The Ronson Community Centre to replace Redbridge Jewish Community Centre (previously Sinclair House built in 1969).
Jewish Care’s new first-class Redbridge care and community campus CGI. Pic: Jewish Care
Once the care and community campus is completed, services including Meals on Wheels, MIKE youth leadership programme and Jami’s Redbridge community hub will come together under one roof for the first time. The development will also include rooftop solar panels and a green roof with grasses, moss, and wildflowers.
Jonathan West, Jewish Care’s director of legal affairs, property and procurement, added: “The care and community campus will also include displays of traditional Jewish objects, as well as memorabilia from Sinclair House, so that the community feels at home in the space with familiar items around them that celebrate being part of one big Jewish Essex and north east London family.”
To donate to the Always Essex community fundraising campaign, click here.
