Fun and games

How could I ever forget the Friday evening parties at the Golf Club with the DJ and dancing. A lot of leaving dos, birthdays or any excuse for a party was held there. Jackie Harwood

I used to DJ at the ward Christmas parties, there was a party on every ward.

Ray Downer

I used to accompany Ray to the ward Christmas parties to support him, but really so I could go to a party and get some food and cake.

Clive McDermott

In the summer of 1981, right before the wedding of the then Prince Charles and the then Lady Diana, the television set in the Alexandra Ward broke down, and panic ensued. Fortunately, it was fixed in time by the speedy action of the Friends of Barnes Hospital.

Kathy Sheldon

I was a cyclist for many years – before it became trendy. Back then there were no showers or changing facilities. I had to improvise and wash using the sink!

Ian Higgins

One of our long-stay patients loved our pantomimes and appeared in several. He had been estranged from his family for years, but his brother heard he was performing and came. Seeing them embrace for the first time in all those years was wonderful.

Josephine Bell

Does anyone remember when Moneeb delivered the most amazing monologue at an awards evening in the old canteen? It consisted entirely of song titles and lyrics and was one of the funniest things ever!

Josephine Bell

Princess Diana visited the deaf unit around 1990. Everything went to plan until one patient jumped out of the crowd and kissed her!

Bryony Cairns

Leonard Cohen and his touring band, The Army, played in the Henderson Tower, Belmont Hospital, formerly a Trust site in Sutton, running through their entire programme for the Isle of Wight festival two days later. About 40 staff and patients attended, and a private recording was made by a member of staff which is now in the Archive and Study Centre.

Anonymous

I remember social groups on the old Daffodil Ward, where older people from the long stay wards would play bingo. It was so long ago that you could win a cigarette as a prize for getting a line of numbers!

Laurie Dahl

The Old Bluebell ward used to hold an annual BBQ in their garden, which had beautiful lavender area, over August Bank Holiday Weekend. For several years we had a mini ‘carnival’ as some of our patients would normally have attended the bigger carnival in Notting Hill.

Jayne Evans

The Springfield pantos ran from 1995 to 2001 - the brainchild of Rev. Eddie Carden who aimed to break down the barriers between staff and service users – and have fun. Some senior management took part as they were keen to modernise Springfield by opening up this ‘hidden hospital’ to the community. Eddie directed, acted and wrote scripts, and found an organist as musical director. He was backed up by a number of stalwart employees such as the ever-comical Bernard Cousins, Suresh Desai, and Mandy Toole who performed in all seven pantos. When Eddie left, I took over for the last two. The scripts were a mixture of traditional panto for the children, inhouse jokes for those in the know, and current political jokes for the adult audience.

Des Muller

The Clinical Exercise Therapy (CET) team runs a south London Football team for service users called The Warriors. They have won the league three times and won the FA People’s Cup 2017, a national competition for people with disabilities, for our category. The team was invited to watch Arsenal vs Chelsea in the FA Cup final at Wembley stadium. At half-time, the Captain received our biggest trophy in our cabinet and the team received text messages from family and friends around the world who were watching it live! Binder Mahami

We held a five kilometre run at Springfield - two and a half times around the site when we used to have the golf course. Sixty-six staff and patients ran in the last one. All the patients received medals, and many patients were very proud of them and had a real sense of achievement.

Binder Mahami

Twice a week there used to be exercises and different games and activities on the lawn area outside Building 14. I used to love bringing service users down from my ward. We would play football and all kinds of other games. Initially, most patients would only watch. Soon though, they all were up and ready far ahead of my 9am arrival to take them out to the games.

Ioanna Prifti

The snooker table we had at the Trust was quite old when I came here. I remember we used to have internal snooker competitions. They were very popular with the patients, and community clients would come back to join them years after being discharged.

Suresh Desai