Service-users have created poetry, inspired artworks, and helped to design the interior of Thames Lodge, a new Medium Secure Unit at St Bernard’s Hospital in West London which opened in February 2016.
Art and health consultants, Willis Newson, were appointed by the West London Mental Health NHS Trust to work with David Morley Architects to integrate art into the new building.
Working with writer, Sue Mayfield, and artist, Ali Brown, Willis Newson devised a series of creative workshops, engaging service-users in the design process to build a sense of pride and ownership. Beginning with simple drawing exercises, Ali Brown’s visual arts workshops saw them contribute their ideas and visions, including generating concepts around the theme of ‘rivers’ for the colour palette and artworks. Creative writing workshops developed the theme further. Sue Mayfield worked with service-users to develop ‘rivers’ of poetry, lines from which were incorporated into large-scale graphics and stencils used in ward areas and corridors.
Artist, Alison Milner, created the final artworks, using the colours, theme, and ideas, selected by service-users, taking inspiration from local landscapes, and weaving lines of their poetry into her designs. In the children and family visitor spaces, circular enamel panels illustrated with day and night-time riverside scenes create a friendly, welcoming impression. Lines of the ‘river poetry’ written by serviceusers are stencilled along the main corridor, facilitating navigation.
Large-scale graphic murals help ‘zone’ the space, ‘creating unique environments in the quiet rooms, meeting spaces, and dining room’. ‘Each feature wall artwork contributes to a coherent identity for the Three Bridges Medium Secure Unit, which is directly linked to the local area and the people who live in the space’.