Nurse! Nurse!
A fascinating new exhibition is coming up at a London venue you should know about
As a long-time devotee of the BBC’s twee but remarkably bloody natal drama Call the Midwife (I know, I know - when I managed a team they all found this completely hilarious), my interest has been piqued by a forthcoming exhibition at the Fitzrovia Chapel, In Uniform: Stories of Nurses and their Clothing, running from November 8 to December 1.
If you’re expecting this to be sexy, I suspect you will be disappointed (try heading into Soho if that’s what you’re looking for, there must be at least one shop left selling the kind of stuff you’ve now got in your head). Instead it’s an exploration of the history and significance of nurses’ uniforms that “delves into the complex narratives woven into the fabrics, designs, and accessories that have adorned generations of nurses.”
It will look at the nurses’ uniform as a symbol - of authority, care and professionalism - and as a practical garment, designed for use in a sometimes hectic care environment, through items such as the chatelaine (a belt attachment which held frequently required tools like scissors and a thermometer), cap, collar, belt buckle, apron, and the iconic cape.
There’s also a piece from designer Pam Hogg’s S/S 2024 collection Apocalypse that appropriates the nurse’s image, juxtaposed with a First World War uniform worn by nurse Elizabeth Satchwell.
It’s the kind of thing you might reasonably expect to find at the Design Museum, if on (I imagine) a rather smaller scale, and I’m fascinated to see it.
But the other reason I wanted to flag this show is actually the venue. If you don’t know the Fitzrovia Chapel, I urge you to go as soon as the show opens. As well as being an astonishing hidden gem in a somewhat over-developed part of central London - a glorious British gothic revival jewel with a glittering mosaic interior, designed by John Loughborough Pearson (but not completed until 1929, 32 years after his death) - it also has an interesting story.
The chapel - now deconsecrated - was originally built in the courtyard of the former Middlesex Hospital, which between 1929 and 1935 was gradually demolished and rebuilt around it (the chapel is Grade II*-listed).
Before the hospital was subsumed into University College Hospital (I think in around 2005), and demolished entirely to make way for the frankly quite naff residential flats that have replaced it, it was home to the Broderip Ward, which was the first in Britain to be dedicated to the care and treatment of people affected by HIV/AIDS.
The Broderip was opened in 1987 by Princess Diana, who shook hands with the patients without gloves - a small but enormously significant act that went some distance to reducing the stigma of and misinformation about the illness.
Since the hospital buildings no longer exist, the Fitzrovia Chapel, as it’s now known, is the only remaining connection to this piece of important queer history. I found all this out when I saw a Leigh Bowery exhibition there, and I found it quite moving. So what with that, and the bloody incredible interior, and the nurses, I reckon you should pop in.