A new courtyard for outpatients at Addenbrooke's Hospital

It was a bright sunny day in April, and I was on a site visit to Addenbrooke’s Hospital, where our fourth courtyard was underway. Once I’d finished on the site visit, I wandered around to take a look at one of our earlier projects at Addenbrooke’s – a courtyard for Outpatients. I was delighted to see fifteen or twenty people in the spring sunshine reading, eating sandwiches or just sitting quietly.
Two years before, this had been a dark and somewhat foreboding space – hardly an ideal environment to have outside a room where outpatients were waiting (sometimes nervously) to attend appointments. Now it was a pleasant airy space with flowers, raised beds and a bubbling water sculpture.
There is a mass of evidence to show that natural green spaces aid recovery. So it was with great pleasure that we started a few years ago helping Addenbrooke’s Hospital with refurbishing a number of their courtyards, beginning with the stroke recovery unit. The work was funded by donations channelled through the Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust. The programme was driven by the relentless enthusiasm of Rachel Northfield, Head of Estates and Building at Cambridge University Hospitals. Her determination to see these spaces transformed has paid off hugely.

The hospital had been given a bronze sculpture of two entwined otters, which had been designed to have water flowing over it. This piece was incorporated into the second courtyard, along with Schellevis paving and raised CorTen steel beds.
Like most Garden designers, we often work for wealthy clients on private projects. This series of spaces has been a refreshing change. When the outpatients Courtyard was finished, I was standing with Rachel looking at the completed space when a woman came up to us and asked who had been responsible for this. When I said rather meekly that I was (not being sure what to expect), she stepped forward, threw her arms around me and gave me a hug! What better thank you could I have had!
The garden received an SGD award last night, which is a great honour.
(We have completed three further courtyards since then, one of which won a BALI award in December 2018. I will do separate posts on these in due course.)