The 140-bed hospital, which is based on the St Thomas’s Hospital site, brings the majority of Guy’s and St Thomas’s children’s services together under one roof. It was designed by Hopkins Architects and has been dubbed ‘a hospital unlike any other’. The Evelina is a hospital created by children for children. Young patients and their families have been involved in shaping its environment and architecture from the earliest stages of design, resulting in a state-of-the-art hospital that redefines expectations.
Sir Jonathan Michael, Chief Executive, Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust, says: “We wanted the new Evelina Children’s Hospital to be much more than a landmark building on a landmark site. Our aim has been to create a hospital that does not feel like a hospital by involving children, their families and our staff in every stage of the design process. “The result is truly inspirational. The new Evelina is a supremely practical, state-of-the-art hospital, but one that is full of imagination, warmth and fun. It redefines the concept of a children’s hospital and will undoubtedly influence the building of new hospitals in Britain and across the world.”
The new Evelina is full of ideas suggested by the very youngest ‘customers’ and their families who wanted colour, light and fun. A Children’s Board of patients and local school children was established and their views on everything from the menus and furniture to the design of the building itself were noted and assimilated. Bright red rocket lifts, clearly visible from inside and outside the hospital, carry people to a four-storey central conservatory. Throughout the hospital, lively artwork, funded by Guy’s and St Thomas’s Charity, creates a welcoming, friendly atmosphere, whilst each floor of the hospital has been given a colour and a symbol taken from the natural world – from Ocean and Beach through to Savannah and Sky. Crucially this also avoids the need for a complex multi-lingual direction system to deal with the 140 languages spoken by local patients.
Dr Frances Flinter, Clinical Director, Children’s Services, Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust, says: “Entering a hospital can be an intimidating experience for anyone, but for children and their families it can be especially difficult. That’s why we have worked so hard at the new Evelina to create an environment as far removed from the traditional institutional atmosphere as possible.
Text adapted from The Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret
