Middlesbrough General Hospital History Mural
In the beginning the hospital was a workhouse, a place for the town's poor and homeless. The sombre backdrop to this first section helps to convey the austerity of the institution. Shades of turquoise and blue are colour-washed to subsequent background images, to create a brighter more positive feel. Lifesize photos of staff members and other large imagery including a famous 1930's footballer, giant hands with test tubes, and an enormous, fearsome looking syringe, are dramatic attention getters. The footballer just had to be included as the hospital had a fantastic view of Middlesbrough Football Club before it was demolished. The Club and its famous footballers have always done their bit to help fundraising for the hospital.
Photos, newspaper cuttings and all the other features that illustrate the history overlay the background, or blend into each other to form a multi-layered effect. These images have never just been simply cropped and placed, frames have been added, colour-washes and painterly effects have been carefully combined. Without these visual enhancements the first part of the mural would have been very monotone, as all the images were of course black and white.

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