Beauty and the dole.

Abstract

Many of Britain's hospitals are ugly and depressing, and more than three million people are unemployed. Wouldn't it make sense if some of the unemployed helped beautify our hospitals? It would, and a walk down the several hundred yards of corridor of Bethnal Green Hospital shows that it is already happening. The corridor is lined with paintings by unemployed people. The first one you see shows a boy fishing in one of the East End's hidden canals. It must be five feet by four, and a casual observer could be excused for thinking it a particularly vibrant and large colour photograph. In fact it is a painting, which might be described as ultrarealist, painted by an unemployed girl who had never painted before. If you were one of the old people who are now the inhabitants of the hospital, you might be reminded of when you were a child and fished in the canal. Or perhaps you would think of your grandson, fishing there at that moment. As you walked on down the corridor you would be reminded of much more, particularly if you knew the East End well. Tubby Isaacs is selling shellfish; bells are being cast