Location and plans

A Children’s Hospital designed with young people in mind

We listened to what children and young people had to say about a new Leeds Children’s Hospital and they told us how important outside and play space is to our young patients. It helped to make it a key part of the design of our new hospitals.

Our designers have created a Children’s Hospital that is friendly, supportive and generous. Many elements of the design have long term patients in mind, understanding that for these children, the hospital will be home for extended periods of time.

Inside the Children’s Hospital you will find an urban forecourt which leads to each of the departments along short streets so there isn’t far to travel. The departments will be built in sculptural towers shaped like two boomerangs back to back, creating a convenient entrance that takes children and their families up to one of six different levels. An enclosed ‘Children’s Cave’ will act as the entrance to the Children’s Hospital, with easy navigation so that young patients and their families can find the way to their appointments.

There will be plenty of daylight to the rooms, with 360 views over the City of Leeds. Young patients will benefit from garden terraces where they will feel a sense of long-term comfort and belonging, and enjoy space to play and plenty of fresh air.

Location

Our new hospital buildings will be developed on the site of the Old Nurses’ Home at Leeds General Infirmary. We have started the demolition of old buildings on the Leeds General Infirmary site including the Old Nurses’ Home building.

This building, like a number of others on the site, was extremely old and didn't meet the standards needed for modern healthcare. As part of our proposals, we will be identifying other buildings we can no longer use for modern healthcare. Some of these will make way for our new hospitals or be sympathetically redeveloped.

Some of our old buildings – like the Gilbert Scott building – are landmarks in Leeds. Even though we cannot use them for healthcare, we plan to bring them back to life, finding innovative uses for them that focus on the vision for the Innovation District.