HOSPITALS can be soulless places, with endless anonymous corridors, confusing signage and the ubiquitous branded outlets dishing up what they describe as coffee.

That’s just the visitor experience and, more importantly, for patients a positive or negative environment can have a significant impact on the healing process. 

Now a unique project has just been launched to integrate art and poetry into healthcare at North Middlesex University Hospital which aims to benefit staff and visitors too. 

Our Storeys places art and poetry in one of the key spaces in the hospital in a bid to help patients get better.

Artist Sue Ridge and poet John Davies have created a digital wallpaper of artwork featuring poems, photographs and images in one of the north London hospital’s new lift lobbies. 

On display is work from poets Carol Ann Duffy, Andrew Motion and Michael Rosen, with the latter’s marvellous These Are The Hands — written to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the NHS — featuring prominently. 

There’s also photography and new writing inspired by the hospital, its history and the neighbourhood it is located in. Poetry has been a driving force behind the project due to Edmonton and Enfield having strong poetic connections with, among others, John Keats, Thomas Hardy and Bob Cobbing.

Equally importantly, according to leading arts practitioner in health care Damian Hebron, Our Storeys “brings to life the voices of staff and patients. Their thoughts and feelings are transposed with sensitivity by artist Sue Ridge and poet John Davies and in doing so the building comes to life.” 

Ridge says that there are exciting challenges in making art of this kind —socially engaged art in large-scale hospitals. 

“Artists working in this context need to show patience, flexibility and sensitivity in their approach to making art, which continues to humanise these complex places,” she says.

“Our Storeys reminds us that every hospital has its own distinctive and ever- changing stories, often hidden in basements waiting to be found by artists and poets.”

Pighog Publishing’s new book on the project Our Storeys: Art And Poetry In Healthcare, price £12.99 plus p&p, is now available from their website www.pighog.co.uk.