Collage of City Hospital
Location: South Corridor, City Hospital
A hospital never stands still.
This fabric collage is a picture of City Hospital, made by an unknown artist or artists. The shape of the cars suggest it was made in the 1960’s or 70’s but we don’t know much more about it than that. Many of the staff who work here walk miles every day in the course of their jobs up and down the corridors past different artworks.
What do you know about the history of City Hospital?
This City is a Village
This City is a village,
Carrying its history in a horse-drawn cart
Laden with provisions
Heavy with a sense of duty
Men and women with starched collars
Gave their time and money
To help.
Children grew up here,
Lost stories woven in the rough fabric
Of workhouse uniforms
Soldiers clothed in heavy worsted
Carried home from trenches
Offered a place of peace
To heal.
A hospital never stands still,
Thousands of steps taken every day
Wheels turn, moving beds and chairs
Progress being made
There is always someone awake
There is always a hand
To hold.
Comments from staff who walk along these corridors every day:
They took different parts of the hospital and put them together. I like it! It’s green and clean. I see it every morning. I like the blue sky.
I like imagining how the hospital used to be. Back when they horses and carts for delivery and transport. It’s intriguing thinking about the olden days.
I see it when I walk past, every day. It’s always been here, and I’ve worked here forty-four years.
Oh yeah. It’s this place. I can see it, that doorway, it’s just outside.
Things change over the years, but it’s got a character, this hospital. If it was a character it could be Florence Nightingale or a lion, the chief looking after the whole herd.
I’ve never saw this picture before! I’m also so busy, I don’t really look. Oh, it’s here, isn’t it? It’s of here, City. it’s lovely. Is it new?