Rebecca Thomson

Thistle Street, 2017

Vinyl and chrome on Doors along the hospital corridor
Thistle Ward, Newham Hospital

Vital Arts, Central Saint Martins and clinicians at Newham University Hospital were pleased to award a commission to CSM graduate Rebecca Thomson (RT Farty) to work on a Dementia Friendly design for Thistle Ward. The students were specifically asked to bring colour and creativity to improve the overall wellbeing of the patients and staff in the Thistle Ward.

As a designer, RT feels she has a responsibility to fix systems and build upon existing structures to improve the world we live in. Amongst social, political and environmental crises, RT strives to provide accessible and inclusive design for the people and issues that need it the most. For Thistle Ward, Thomson noticed that the patients would benefit from a design that would bring familiarity, ownership and community into the ward.

Post WWII, houses and communities were being built and re-built from the destruction. With new international trade, imported coloured pigment was one of novel new goods that arrived on the London Docks. Using this newly available material, people began to paint their front doors as a sign of optimism and hope. To celebrate Newham as one of the most multicultural boroughs in London, Thistle Street is inspired by a vibrant road to bring the Thistle Ward patients together as neighbours. Each uniquely decorated door is accompanied by a illustration hung in each room, to help patients associate themselves with their room and door.