Wandsworth Acute Unit, Tooting

Undertaken for South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust following the successful completion of its Phoenix Unit, Wandsworth Acute Unit further enhances the Trust’s care provision for mental health patients.

With the Phoenix Unit and now WAU, the Trust has facilities which create the therapeutic environment needed for our patients to help them recover. They are the real winners from all your endeavours – thank you.

Dr Robert Barr, Director of Estates, South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust

The new unit provides accommodation for a psychiatric intensive care unit and an adult acute ward while also allowing the Trust to bring together disparate members of Community Mental Health Teams to improve the quality of service offered to both patients and their carers.

A huge improvement on the outdated Victorian and Edwardian buildings they replace, the new wards provide each patient with their own bedroom and an en suite bathroom. Communal spaces are light and airy with enclosed courtyard gardens, day spaces and activity areas.

The interior design was developed from ideas provided by the Trust to create as homely a feel as possible. Hence the colour scheme derives from the soothing palette used in Monet’s painting “Gardens at Giverny”, a postcard of which, one of the patients had received during treatment.