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Middle Entrance, Frenchay Hospital

Will and Sam Boex, two designers from Cornwall, created a new bench to sit outside the Middle Entrance at Frenchay Hospital.

Will and Sam were contracted to design a seat that was attractive and comfortable, but that would also draw attention to the entrance.

The Middle Entrance at Frenchay Hospital is one of the main accesses to the hospital.  Used by ambulances and patients waiting to be collected and as a thoroughfare for many staff and visitors, it has recently been modified to include a new glass opening area and a canopy to allow ambulances to drop off patients in the dry.

The bench was designed to look like a postcard that had been delivered from a grateful patient.  The words on the postcard were taken from one of the many letters of appreciation received by staff and underline the affection in which many people hold Frenchay hospital.  The postcard’s stamp will be familiar to many former staff and patients as design on the badge used by Frenchay School of Nursing!  The bench has been made from Iroko timber, a sustainable hard wood chosen for its particular resistant to the worst the British weather can throw at it, as well its soft and welcoming surface and the beautiful pink, yellow and brown colours in the wood.

Frenchay welcomed the dramatic arrival of a six-metre high steel sculpture, designed and made by local artist Pete Moorhouse. The three-figure sculpture, Holding Pattern, represents the tripartite relationship between staff, patients and local people for which Frenchay is renowned. Pete held workshops with staff and consulted with visitors and local people to get their views on the design of the sculpture. For instance, he incorporated one staff member’s comment about the famous dark red shade of the Frenchay soil by leaving the bottom two figures un-coated so that the steel rusts to the same colour.