Children's Day Treatment Centre competition winners announced

Winning artwork depicting an astronaut school by Ella Moth, aged 8

The winners of a competition to design artwork for Evelina London’s new Children’s Day Treatment Centre have been announced. 

The competition gave children and young people from across London and the south east the opportunity to influence the interior design in the new building. The theme is 'outer space', decided in collaboration with Evelina London patients, families and staff, to match with the natural world theme in the Evelina London Children's Hospital building.  

Eight-year-old Ella Moth, from Gipsy Hill, south east London, was the overall winner and the winner for her age category (under 10) with her astronaut school design.

Entrants were asked to submit artwork showing 'people and journeys in space'. Ella’s winning design shows astronauts taking part in lessons in a brightly coloured astronaut school, including languages with aliens and learning how to fly a rocket.

Her design was inspired by her father, Piers, who was being treated for brain cancer at Guy's Hospital before he passed away last year. Ella said: “We always say daddy has gone to the moon, so I wanted to make something that would help me reach the moon. I also thought it would be fun for other children.”

Ella’s mum, Laura Moth, said: “I’m so proud of Ella for entering this competition. She’s had a really tough time since she lost her dad but creating the artwork really made her remember the happy times we shared together and think about what we would say if we could visit him, as we like to say he is on the moon. I really hope the children visiting the Day Treatment Centre enjoy looking at the astronaut school as much as Ella enjoyed creating it.”

Winners were also chosen from the 11-16 and 17-25 years old age categories. Alice Anderson, 11, from Surrey, won the 11-16 year old category for her picture of an astronaut painting outer space. James Hayward, 17, from Wiltshire, won the 17-25 year old category for his stargazing image.

The winners were chosen by a panel of judges including Evelina London staff, a member of the Youth Forum, and Japanese manga artist, Kiriko Kubo. Kiriko has designed award-winning artwork in Evelina London Children’s Hospital, and is leading on the designs for the new centre. 

Kiriko said: “All of the entries were absolutely amazing and the judges were taken aback by the quality of the designs but Ella’s piece really stood out. The imagination in her design is fantastic. We loved the sense of humour, as well as the link to education and the idea of going on a journey through the school, which very much fits the brief. It went beyond expectation. Ella is very talented and is clearly a budding artist.”

The space-themed artwork will be used to guide patients through the building and to stimulate their imagination. The winners of the competition will be invited to preview the artwork once installed and have the chance to see how their entries have influenced the final designs.

James O’Brien, Director of Operations and Improvement at Evelina London, said: “The response to the competition has been fantastic. We can’t wait to see how Ella’s wonderful and inspirational design is used on the interiors of our new Children’s Day Treatment Centre to amaze people that visit and use it. It is really important to us that the Day Treatment Centre is welcoming for our patients and their families. We know visiting hospital can be stressful, so the competition was a great opportunity to help create a fun and family-friendly environment.”

Evelina London’s state-of-the-art Children’s Day Treatment Centre will have two new operating theatres, which will help to reduce waiting times for surgery and help the hospital to treat up to an additional 2,300 children per year. Families will also wait less on the day of surgery, as pre-surgery checks, the operation, recovery and preparation for going home can all be done in one place, in one day.

The five-storey, multi-use building will also boast the latest equipment and child-focused technology to help families with all aspects of their care in a fun and engaging way.

The Evelina London Children’s Day Treatment Centre is due to open to patients next year.

Read more about the fantastic entries to our arts competition.