Entrance closure marks milestone for Children’s Cancer Centre
20 Feb 2024, 1:15 p.m.
Last month it was confirmed that work to enable the development of GOSH's new Children’s Cancer Centre will start this year.
As a first step, the hospital yesterday (19 February) closed its iconic main entrance on Great Ormond Street.
New entrance
The Morgan Stanley Clinical Building entrance on Guilford Street will now be the best entrance for most people with an appointment or admission in the main hospital. The hospital has installed new artwork by artists Ling Tan, Usman Haque and children from the hospital school, to make it easier to spot.
The hospital will ensure all its patients and families are contacted by letter, text message and MyGOSH to ensure they know which entrances they can use to access the hospital.
This news item on the hospital website also has more information.
The Morgan Stanley Clinical Building entrance on Guilford Street.
Exciting construction milestone
The closure of the main entrance marks an exciting milestone in the construction programme for the new Children's Cancer Centre.
As well as closing the main entrance, work to remove an old concrete crane base within the hospital site will soon start.
There will be some infrastructure changes within the hospital, such as utility and ventilation diversions.
These changes will mean that the Frontage Building is completely disconnected from the rest of the hospital and is ready to be deconstructed later in 2024.
The next major milestone is anticipated to take place in summer 2024 when Great Ormond Street becomes one-way (east to west) with hoardings along the middle of the road to create a lane for construction vehicles to access the site.
A trip down memory lane
The closure of the main entrance on Great Ormond Street marks the start of an exciting chapter for GOSH.
For many, it will also be the end of an era.
The video below shows former GOSH patient Khushal.
After having his photo taken outside the GOSH entrance as a child, he revisited the entrance 25 years later to take another picture – pulling the same pose.
Over the years, a defining feature of GOSH’s main entrance has been the changing artwork on its sliding doors – organised by GOSH Arts.
Below is a look back at just some of these amazing designs, each helping to create a warm welcome to GOSH.
“The doors to GOSH represent many things to many people,” says GOSH Arts.
“We hope that the series of door commissions helped create a warm and joyful welcome to all the patients, families and staff that came through them.
“It's been a brilliant opportunity for GOSH Arts to use the doors as a canvas to showcase a diverse range of artistic practices over the years."
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