Bloomsbury Health Authority Masterplan, London
1988

Terry Farrell and Partners were commissioned by the Bloomsbury and Islington Health Authority to examine options for two hospital sites – the Middlesex and University College. TFP acted as overall co-ordinator working with a number of specialists reporting to the Department of Health.

The hospital was perceived to be a faceless public institution. Based upon a study of different aspects of hospital culture as a number of separate, if inter-related facilities and elements, TFP proposed to present the institution as a mini-community. The scheme established a campus-style hospital on the site adjacent to Waterhouse's University College Hospital, which redeveloped many listed buildings already owned by the health authority. By developing a number of new-build elements, integrated with existing structures, the urban image of the hospital as a large forbidding building, was replaced by TFP's concept of the institution as a 'gentle giant' which sits unobtrusively within the urban fabric.

The Waterhouse building was converted into a teaching hospital, with the new hospital elements designed to relate in scale to the listed buildings. In order to encourage the integration of the institution, TFP concentrated upon creating an infrastructure of circulation and activity that mirrored the normality of the city street. The new pedestrian domain was developed around a network of routes into and across the site. The main entrance was placed on the north-south axis that took the line of Huntley Street and extended it to link Grafton Way to Torrington Place. This main route was crossed by two east-west routes, connecting Gower Street to Tottenham Court Road. By relating the internal circulation system of the hospital to the existing street pattern, the institution contributes to the city by providing new pedestrian routes through a once impermeable city block.

TFP also provided a number of amenities that were placed along the main circulation routes and public spaces in the centre of the scheme. Outpatient and other public-use facilities were placed at ground level, with more private and specialized wards sited on the floors above. Some years earlier, Farrell had been struck by a children's hospital in Philadelphia that had a McDonald's in the main foyer area. Making provision for shops, restaurants and a cinema within the scheme, blurred the distinction between the world within the hospital and the city outside. By introducing everyday facilities within which people can meet and socialize, TFP provided a centre for the community of the hospital, but also encouraged the use of the institution by others working and living locally.