Great Ormond Street Hospital plans Frontage Building deconstruction

Over a number of years, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust has been gradually moving clinical services out of its Frontage Building for it to be deconstructed, creating space for its new Children’s Cancer Centre to be built.

With the Sight and Sound Centre opening in 2021, the sight and hearing loss services moved out of the Frontage Building into this new bespoke, multi-disciplinary centre designed especially for children’s sensory needs.

Outpatient services previously based in the Frontage Building have now moved to new locations in the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine, and also within the Variety Club Building.

The patients have fed back that the new unit is much brighter and that they like having their own en-suite bathroom

Great Ormond Street Hospital has also been renovating floors of the Southwood Building to create new inpatient spaces and outpatient services for Paediatric Mental Health Services (PAMHS) and its Clinical Research Facility.

PAMHS moved into their new home in January 2024. The space was designed and developed in partnership with clinical teams and patients.

Careful attention was paid to the artwork, which is fully integrated into the spaces.

A series of workshops with children and young people who are part of the service informed the art commission, which includes integrated pieces such as bedheads, soft wall coverings and bi-fold doors.

The artwork aims to make the space feel as much like home as possible, and to be welcoming and calm with elements of joy and surprise found throughout.

PAMHS Matron, John Forrester, said: “The move to a new space, after such a long period in the Frontage Building has been challenging but equally rewarding. The patients have fed back that the new unit is much brighter and that they like having their own en-suite bathroom. Staff are enjoying having more space in which to provide care and treatment, as well as their new break room.

Forrester added: “The Frontage holds many memories and of the many patients and families that we have been fortunate enough to support. At the end of a patient’s stay on our ward they have the opportunity to leave their handprint on a special board and these boards have come with us to our new space.”