Camden New Journal - Letters: Art of matter at the hospital

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Camden New Journal - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 10 May 2007

Art of matter at the hospital

• YOUR article on the future of paintings donated to the Middlesex Hospital (Hospital to put historic paintings on the market, May 3) makes depressing reading. For me, it raises the following questions:
1. Why weren’t these incorporated into the design of the new University College London Hospital (UCLH) and still under construction?
2. Why could they not be hung in the lofty and spacious reception at UCLH and the adjacent circulation areas?
3. Funds were allocated for artwork in the new hospital so why not tap into these for any hanging and conservation works, the cost being a mere drop in the hospital’s budget ocean?
4. In answer to the comment that traditional paintings such as the Cayley Robinson’s Acts of Mercy cannot be hung in and have no relevance to a modern setting, then look no further than Sir Denys Lasdun’s Royal College of Physicians Building (1961-1964).
Look at the influence of neighbouring St Bartholomew’s Hospital and the former Foundling Hospital and the way in which Antonio Verrio’s monumental wall paintings were incorporated into the new Christ’s Hospital School at Horsham.
All in all, it suggests a lack of management imagination which detracts from the otherwise great success story of UCLH.
MARTIN ANDREWS
Guildford Street, WC1

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, Camden New Journal, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@camdennewjournal.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Tuesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number. Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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