GOSH Hospital Sight & Sound Centre

• Client: Kier London
• Sector: Healthcare
• Services: Commercial Decorating
• Region: London
• Size: 3,500 sq. ft.
• Project Value: £25 million

Project Overview

Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) is one of the most famous hospitals in the world. From humble beginnings in 1852, it has grown to become arguably the best-known children’s hospital in the UK. 

GOSH is the largest centre for child heart surgery in Great Britain, and Europe’s leading location for research into children’s health.  

When the hospital ran its Wishing Well appeal in the late 1980s to raise funds to modernise the hospital, it reached its targets, raised GOSH’s profile and tapped into a reservoir of public goodwill that persists to this day. Even now, London’s black cab drivers refuse to take payments for taking sick children there.  

Sentinel was, therefore, proud and privileged to be invited to deliver commercial decorating work at an upgraded historical building on the hospital’s central London campus. 

This is the new Sight and Sound Centre, the first dedicated medical facility for children with sight and hearing loss in the UK. The building that was redeveloped for the purpose was the Italian Hospital in Queen Square.  

A Grade II Listed building with a fascinating history, the revitalised structure now provides care and treatment in a less medicalised environment. It is designed to be a place where young patients can feel it is a home from home.  

Sonnemann Toon Architects came up with the plan to repair the exterior and reorganise the interior – as well as creating a landscape garden. The Sight and Sound Centre, which was opened in June 2021, brings together audiology, cochlear implants, ophthalmology, Ear Nose and Throat and speech & language therapy.  

Constructors Kier London selected Sentinel, the UK’s preferred specialist decorating contractor, to provide commercial decoration throughout the revamped building, which stands just round the corner from the main GOSH site in Bloomsbury.  

Project Brief

As is so often the case when upgrading existing London buildings, particularly Listed structures, all parties involved in the development of the Sight and Sound Centre had to strike a fine balance between delivering modern facilities and respecting the original structure and character of the building.  

The Italian Hospital was opened in 1884 by a successful Italian businessman troubled by the problems caused by the language barrier for his compatriots in London.  

While preference was given to Italians, the hospital was open to anyone in need and almost half its patients were British. It stayed as an independent hospital when the NHS was founded in 1948 and remained a community hub for the Little Italy area of Clerkenwell, but financial problems forced it to close in 1990. 

In the decades since, it was acquired by GOSH and contained offices and hostel accommodation for parents of patients at the hospital.  

The £25 million remodelling project that created the Sight and Sound Centre involved the careful repair of the exterior of the building in a way that respected its Listed status.  

Within the walls, the facility was extended to offer upgraded, bespoke and multi-disciplinary care for children with sensory needs.  

The centre includes soundproof booths for hearing tests, an eye imaging suite, testing facilities and a dispensing optician. 

Children can also visit a sensory garden where they can engage with artworks specially created for young people with sensory loss. 

Sentinel, London’s favourite specialist decorating sub-contractor, was pleased to be involved in the project and to play a part in a redevelopment that is already making such a difference for young patients.  

Challenges / Solution

Sentinel’s teams of specialist decorators have been involved in recent years in the constant evolution of Great Ormond Street Hospital.  

We took great care to select materials and finishes appropriate to the function of the revitalised Italian Hospital.  

The operatives representing Sentinel, which brings extensive expertise to specialist decorating challenges like this one, understood the importance of internal decorations that respected the sensory purpose of this new unit.  

All the internal decorations at the site, which stands on the corner of Queen Square and Boswell Street, were completed to the satisfaction of the client.  

There were restricted floor to soffit heights on the site, and the electrical capacity there was restricted, which added to the challenge of the task undertaken by our specialist decorators. 

When the project was completed, we were proud to have played a part in the creation of the UK’s first dedicated medical facility for children with sight and hearing loss.  

The Result

Great Ormond Street Hospital has changed beyond recognition since it opened in a townhouse in Bloomsbury in 1852. The hospital is constantly evolving to update and improve the care it offers children suffering from a wide variety of medical conditions.  

It is worth re-emphasising how proud Sentinel is to have been involved in the redevelopment work at GOSH over recent years.  

We are pleased to be able to play a part in upgrading works that mean children, and their families, can be cared for in a safer and more comfortable environment.  

The Sight and Sound Centre, while delivering its intended purpose, also won widespread recognition for the quality of its design.  

The new unit won the Healthcare Design (under 25,000 square metres) category at the European Healthcare Design Awards. It was also highly commended at those same awards in the Interior Design and Arts category. Another accolade was a shortlisting in the regional category of the Civic Trust Awards.