Exhibition reveals letters written while in hospital two years before her suicide

TRAGIC poet Sylvia Plath began work on some of her most celebrated poems while staring out the windows of St Pancras Hospital.
Just two years before her suicide in 1963, the wife of poet Ted Hughes wrote home to her mother about the bright, cheerful hospital wards.
Now, for the first time, exhibitions manager at the St Pancras Way hospital, Peter Herbert, has brought together a collection of Plath’s poems and letters, as well as photographs from the 1960s, in an exhibition celebrating the history of the area.
He said: “Sylvia Plath was a patient here for surgical reasons in 1961 and that time was considered an important part of her creative life.
“She had time away from her family while at St Pancras and that’s why she wrote about health perceptions on the ward.”
The process of putting together the exhibition has taken Mr Herbert some time.
He said: “A couple of years ago I got permission to use her letters, then some time later her poems. This is the first time it’s all been pulled together into one big display.”
The exhibition reveals some enlightening insights into the mind of the depressive writer, who was living in Primrose Hill at the time of her suicide.
Mr Herbert explained: “Her letters to her mother were very complimentary about the bright wards, cheerful nurses and interesting women she met.
“It was during the winter of 1961, one of the worst winters recorded in London, that she wrote the notes for one of her most famous poems, Tulips.
“We’re pleased her letters will now be seen by more people.”
The permanent exhibition can be seen today (Thursday) at a launch open to the public between 6pm and 9pm at the Groves Lounge in the hospital’s South Wing.
Also on view will be work by Camden artist Matilda Moreton, winner of a £3,000 North Central London NHS Charitable Fund commission.
Her brief was to create artwork that will add to the quality of life for St Pancras patients as well as to enhance the renovated features of the building, which dates from 1876.
The artist’s work, Outside: Inside, a permanent installation of 168 ceramic tiles on six floor landings of the hospital’s South Wing, certainly does that.
She beat 80 applicants, reduced to a shortlist of 13. Her images reflect Camden now and in the past, with a different theme on each floor.
She said: “I aim to reinforce the healing work of the hospital environment, while bringing in the beauty of nature and the vitality of the community.
“This will provide those inside the hospital with a window onto the outside world, with moments of relief from the realities of hospital life.”
Her work took on an additional dimension when she held workshops with patients and consulted staff. Mr Herbert said: “Matilda talked about what she wanted to do, listened to what they wanted and tried to incorporate that into the design
“The memories of patients have been related to the images she’s chosen – images of families and life in Camden Town over a few decades.
“So on that level it’s good she’s involved the people that live and work in the building.”
Other works on display at tonight’s launch will be Camden artist John Lynch’s Hampstead Heath paintings, a new presentation of Carolyn Quartermaine’s 1989 commission for the hospital based on the Dead Sea scrolls and the recent acquisition of a historic stained glass chapel window.

• The Plath exhibition is open Monday to Sunday, 9am to 6pm in Groves Lounge, South Wing, St Pancras Hospital, St Pancras Way. Part of Outside: Inside can be seen at the same times but to view the full installation call 020 7530 3328 or email peter.herbert@camdenpct.nhs.uk.

Tulips
The tulips are too excitable, it is winter here.
Look how white everything is, how quiet, how snowed-in
I am learning peacefulness, lying by myself quietly
As the light lies on these white walls, this bed, these hands.
I am nobody; I have nothing to do with explosions.
I have given my name and my day-clothes up to the nurses
And my history to the anaesthetist and my body to
surgeons.
They have propped my head between the pillow and the sheet-cuff
Like an eye between two white lids that will not shut.