Healthy Hospital Street

An impression of the proposed Healthy Hospital Street. © LDA Design

Typology: Paediatric care | Location: Westminster, London

Reclaiming road space for a child-friendly hospital arrival at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

LDA Design

Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) is known for being a leader in the field of medicine, but were you aware that it is also a pioneering thinker when it comes to landscape?

Up to 750 seriously ill children and carers arrive at the hospital every day and yet, like the streets outside most London hospitals, Great Ormond Street itself is dominated by traffic. The hospital’s ambition is to make Great Ormond Street work better for patients, visitors, staff, and the local community so GOSH has been working with LDA Design on a concept which reclaims road space, replacing it with a series of beautiful garden rooms. Changes have been made carefully to balance placemaking with the complex demands of hospital logistics.

The aim is to create a welcoming and loved place at the heart of the community, providing a healthy biophilic environment which is a pleasure for the senses. There will be places to relax and communal dining. Climate resilience is enhanced, including through the incorporation of rain gardens, and the street design is rooted in a low-carbon approach that considers the whole life of all elements. In particular, proposals target improvements in air quality, reducing the pollutants nitrogen dioxide and fine particulate matter (PM2.5), which cause respiratory illness and damage lung function in children. By creating London’s first ‘Healthy Hospital Street’, the hope is that other hospitals across the city will follow suit.

You cannot overestimate the importance of doorstep play and what this can mean for children’s hospital experience – as well as providing respite for carers and staff.

This child-friendly landscape, incorporating surrounding streets, includes ‘play on the way’ features that extend along the entire street. A series of street events have brought the hospital and local community together ensuring local primary school children and patients were involved in the co-design process. The proposals provide a glimpse of the potential that the public realm has to offer and reflects growing national recognition of the need to invest in health-enhancing environments.

Scott Carroll CMLI is a Director at LDA Design