4 minute read
Springfield Hospital
Springfield Hospital Village. © SWLSTG
Typology: General hospital | Location: Wandsworth, London
South West London and St George’s NHS Trust
South West London and St George’s has been at the forefront of mental health transformation for the best part of a decade. As a leading NHS Mental Health Trust, it serves 1.2 million people across the London boroughs of Kingston, Merton, Richmond, Sutton and Wandsworth.
Since it was established in 1994, several of its key services have been delivered in outdated Victorian buildings. In recent years this has changed as works have moved forward to develop a bold landscape that breathes new life into parts of its ageing estate.
The Trust’s Better Environments Programme is working to deliver state-of-the art facilities, both to improve patient care and, at the same time, to open up NHS sites to the community to break down mental health stigma.
Through the sale of surplus land not required for mental health care, and with some additional funding, the Trust is part way through a £250 million investment to develop new mental health facilities at Springfield Hospital in Wandsworth and Tolworth Hospital in Kingston.
The programme began at Springfield, where the Trust has worked together with patients, carers, staff, and the wider community to reimagine a new social landscape across its 92-acre estate. This has seen the site transform into a new ‘Springfield Village’ with a public square, shops, cafés, a gym, hundreds of new homes, new hospital buildings, and a new 32-acre park. The park includes a pavilion café, an amphitheatre, youth shelter, play areas, sensory gardens, and a trim trail to support the health and wellbeing of all who use it.
As part of the changes, the Trust has also launched a programme of mental health first aid training for the community to help raise mental health awareness and boost mental health literacy.
At the heart of Springfield Village are the cutting-edge Trinity and Shaftesbury buildings. Together, they represent a £150 million investment to create better facilities for patients. The buildings have been designed to provide high-quality inpatient services that deliver mental health care in a bright, modern setting.
Construction began in January 2020 and continued throughout the pandemic. Trinity, which opened in December 2022, is home to over 30 teams and provides care to patients in two acute wards, two specialist wards (including national deaf services), and a range of outpatient services. The Shaftesbury Building followed in October 2023 and supports several specialist and forensic wards.
It’s really useful to have that place where it’s almost integrated in the community because of the stigma that family or visitors have towards visiting you.
Co-designed with patients, carers and service users, architect and landscape architect C.F. Møller used guiding principles of space, light and nature in the development of the buildings. Both include spacious ensuite bedrooms, colourful artworks and garden courtyards, providing places for rest and reflection.
There is no comparison between where Jupiter Ward was previously and its new home in Trinity. It has been a marvellous surprise to see this beautiful, airy and light building compared to where we were.
As part of the innovative design, Springfield’s new facilities feature 20 world-class artworks created in partnership with arts and mental health charity, Hospital Rooms, one of the largest art projects of its kind undertaken in the NHS.
Taking place over three years, Hospital Rooms led 120 art workshops with patients, carers and staff, that inspired incredible conversations, collaborations and artwork proposals. From this, artists co-designed 20 pieces of vibrant and uplifting artwork that have helped to shape new creative spaces for mental health care in South West London.
Springfield Village is a unique landscape, offering something special to NHS staff, residents and patients alike. It gives concrete expression to the important changes in attitudes to mental ill health that have taken place over the past decade and shows how much can be achieved when patients, carers, staff and local people come together to shape their communities.
Ian Garlington is Better Communities Programme Director at South West London and St George’s NHS Trust
