Britta von Zweigbergk has lived in Kent for many years. Despite the Swedish connections attached to her name she is a long standing self confessed Anglophile.

Now in her seventies and with more time on her hands she is able to pursue her own small practice as an artist and writer. She is very interested in social history, particularly the history of Asylums - having worked in one for a number of years, during which time she amassed an extensive collection of photographs, artworks and writings from those who used the art therapy department at Bexley Hospital between 1973 - 1996, including the artist Cynthia Pell. She is currently attempting to put these in some sort of order and possibly showing a selection to a wider public through exhibitions. Examples can be found on this website and are updated on a yearly basis.

She also kept a work journal of daily life in the hospital, particularly the art therapy department and other units like Ashdown (Drug Dependency Unit ) And E1, the locked ward.

A Blog updating these entries on a very regular basis, starting from the winter of 1984 is available online.

She was pleased to re establish connections and to be asked to be one of the Trustees for Centrepieces (www.centrepieces.org ) in the autumn of 2014. Centrepieces is an Arts Organisation which had strong connections with the art therapy department in Bexley Hospital and was formed three years after the art therapy department closed in November 1996. The early members almost all, without exception had attended the open sessions at Bexley Hospital or had some connection.

Centrepieces was originally set up by a group of artists with a Millennium award of £5000 from the National Lottery. It exists to promote recovery and creativity through the artsand presents opportunities for people to participate in community projects and to exhibit and sell their work. It also holds workshops, forums, a yearly auction and studio groups. Photography and creative writing are also encouraged and there are plans to renew longstanding connections with music and the reforming of a group.

With CIO status achieved early in 2015, Centrepieces is moving ahead with exciting ideas for exhibitionsand aims to build upon its established workshops and studio activities. It is also seekingcloser working with others with similar interests. A new website is being introduced and Centrepieces is now on Facebook. It is very much a question of watch this space!

Britta also finds time to be involved with SEOS (South East Open Studios, www.seos-art.com) and has opened her studio to the public in past years and at the present time maintains a web page on the SEOS website.

A continuing link with the ‘What If Gallery‘ in Dartford, Kent is also maintained. The Gallery is a unique facility for those with an interest and passion for art. They offer exhibitions at a very reasonable rate as well as hanging opportunities. Britta has become a Friend of the Gallery and has been very impressed by their openness and their enthusiasm to bring art to the widest number of people. She has seen the success of their popular workshops during the week and would thoroughly recommend visiting the Gallery whenever in Dartford, There is always something thought provoking and memorable to see.

She still retains links to the Folkestone area where she spent her teenage years and attended Folkestone and Dover Schools of Art as well as Saint Martins, Charing Cross Road. She is a long distance member of the Folkestone Writers Group (folkestone writers.wordpress.com) and contributed to The FOLKESTONE 2015 Anthology ( ISBN 978-0-9551952-6-6. to order copies of this book and copies of the 2016 and 17 Anthologies please contact editor john.sussams@gmail.com).

She also supports the National and Local MIND Association (www.dgsmind.co.uk) and is particularly interested in the role of carers, being very involved in supporting her daughters independence in the community. She is disturbed by the local reduction in mental health services due to lack of funding and sees an opportunity for voluntary organisations to step in to offer support to those with long term mental health problems . The present Community Mental Health Team in the Dartford , Gravesham and Swanley area offers a skeleton service and is maintained by a small number of dedicated professionals who do their best in a difficult financial situation. There is a pressing need for local and voluntary organisations to step and fill the gap in local resources.

She has become a registered volunteer for Carers First in Kent and Medway (wwwcarersfirst.org.uk/ 0300 303 1555) and is committed to a monthly Carers Support Group which meets at the Heritage Centre in Hextable on the second Tuesday of each month. It began as a local Mind group and evolved from this into a carer led group under the protective umbrella of Carers First, who support, contribute and fund the venue. The group hopes to build upon its status as a a local facility for those who care for a relative or partner with mental health problems. It offers support in a warm and informal atmosphere and gains much from shared experiences.. Connections and input into Carers First has grown over the last year and stems from shared concerns over the paucity of support for carers . She continues to be disturbed by reductions in local mental health services in the Gravesham area and would like to do more to bring these concerns to public notice.

She moved to Swanley in the 1960’s and although at the time not intending to stay too long, finds herself still there! A small town and civil parish n the Sevenoaks area, Kent, Swanley rests on the London/Kent border and despite its close association with Sevenoaks is under the postal code of the London Borough of Bromley. It is not without its quota of distinguished ex residents - Allan Knott - Kent and England cricketer was brought up in the town and attended Swanley School (as it was then called!) as did Mark Steel, English Socialist, columnist, author and comedian. Swanley has even had its own pop star - Crispian St, Peters, whose two notable top ten hits were ‘You were always in my Mind‘ and ‘The Pied Piper‘.

Originally built on either side of the A20 before the M25 existed, she has vague memories of passing through it en route to the galleries from Folkestone Art School and of its then instantly underwhelming impression on her. Little did she think she would end up as a long term resident many years later.

One of the advantages of staying in a place a long time however is a gradual familiarity that becomes very comfortable and eventually becomes a distinct plus.

Swanley’s population for instance has a down to earth kindness and solidarity which she has come to appreciate, also a prosaic and stoic approach to life and its general difficulties. This has proved helpful in occasional times of crisis. She finds she likes the mix of urban and rural which co-incides for her own periodic hankering for the possibility of temporary escape of which there are many opportunities in the area. She has finally grown into the place and intends to continue enjoying it as long as possible. She thoroughly endorses a maxim she heard recently ‘Don’t die until you’re dead’. Excellent advice!

WARDS AND DEPARTMENTS IN BEXLEY HOSPITAL circa 1970’s /1980’s

R1 - THE JAMES McLEAN UNIT - Flagship of the new order

The James McLean Unit - named after the chairman of the hospital management committee - of which perhaps R1 was the flagship, had developed and flourished over the years and remained a template for similar units to spring up all over the country. Ann McLean who worked at Bexley Hospital in 1973 and was ward sister of R1/The James McLean Unit when it was first established remembers;

‘In 1973 I worked at Bexley Hospital as a ward sister and was appointed member of the commissioning team to set up an acute 30 bed admission ward serving the catchment area of central and eastern Lewisham. The establishment of this ward was a relatively new innovation in the provision of care as it was to develop a multi professional approach to treatment, ensuring patients needs were being met in a holistic way and particular needs were being supported by the appropriate professionals’

R1 ward opened on 3rd November 1973 when a group of patients were transferred from Maplehurst ward (one of the outlying Villas in the grounds) which served the Lewisham and Southwark area.

The multi-disciplinary team consisted of a Consultant Psychiatrist, Dr Douglas Brough, Nursing Officer Patricia Burnett, Sister Anne MacLean and Charge Nurse Tom Owens, Psychologist, Richard Field and a Social Worker and Occupational Therapist, who changed and moved somewhat over the years.

R1, being situated in the T corridor was close to the art therapy department and a sizeable percentage of the patients used the open sessions in the department and a good relationship existed between the staff and art therapists.

Patricia Burnett, Nursing Officer in charge of the unit was interviewed by Community Care Magazine in February 1979 and emphasised the importance of training and education for her staff team. Miss Burnett, who had trained at the Maudsley and had been an Assistant Matron before the Salmon Reorganisation had worked in Bexley Hospital for nearly twenty years. She was concerned about the poor image psychiatric nurses had with some sections of the general public and the difficulties in recruitment. But her comments on Bexley Hospital echoed others over the years ;

‘Bexley was described recently as a happy hospital with a good morale and I think this unit is a good example of what this means. We have very little hierarchical autocracy on the the wards, we lose nothing be being informal and friendly with one another and everyone understands there are occasions when we have to be more formal and not use first names for instance’

Tom Owen, who was charge nurse on R1 at that time and worked with Anne MacLean also remembers the setting up of this unit and writes;

Back in November 1973 R1 ward opened as an acute admission ward of 30 beds. the sole medical responsibility belonged to the Consultant Psychiatrist Dr Douglas Brough. Until this time consultants had to share wards between them. the concept of a full multi professional team working on the ward was one of the first in the country. the team comprised of medical and nursing staff, a psychologist, a social worker and an occupational therapist. It was also a teaching ward for all disciplines.

On admission the patient was case conferenced. the family and other involved professionals from the community attended. A care plan was set up, and a key worker named to work with the patient. The patient also had a key nurse. Subsequently to the case conference the patient was discussed every week in a review meeting by the team.

In the early days, the psychologist, social worker, occupational therapist and nurses each took a small weekly patient discussion group. There was also weekly, a ward meeting for all patients and staff. This meeting was also attended by the Hospital Chaplain, the Rev. Frank martin’.

This was indeed a progressive step forward and quite in keeping with Bexley Hospitals tendency to be on the cutting edge of innovation.

Bexley Hospital also tended to be more open in other areas, for instance to the local press and residents alike. Community care Magazine in February 19769 attempted to find out what life was like inside a large psychiatric hospital and how the ‘interface’ between hospital and community was managed. Three large hospitals refused the journalists entry, but Bexley Hospital, in the spirit of openness (in which it had a certain reputation) allowed the journalists to discover what went on in the 1,300 bedded hospital at that time. The James MacLean Unit was chosen, with its mix of four wards (An Admission ward, R1, male and female rehabilitation wards R2 and S2 and a psycho geriatric long stay mixed ward, S1 ) plus its innovative multi professional working.

Elsewhere, the success of multi disciplinary working appeared slightly less certain, i.e. in the report of the committee of enquiry, St. Augustine’s Hospital, Chartham, Canterbury, it was said that staff felt the setting up of multi disciplinary teams would provide the answer to their problems, yet as the report progressed it became abundantly clear that the complete lack of interdisciplinary understanding and co operation was one of the key factors that led to the Enquiry being set up in the first place. Allegations had been made concerning the care and treatment of patients at the hospital.

Dr Brian Ankers, PhD (an organic chemist working as a nursing assistant and Olleste Weston RMN) had produced a ‘critique regarding policy’ in which a restrained but well founded criticism of the complete lack of policy for the care of patients in its long stay wards. Specific details of the neglect and abuse were successfully brought to public attention and resulted in recommendations being made as to future reforms and changes to hospital policy and management. i.e.;

‘laying down a watertight system for internal handling of complaints; more inservice training for ward staff and management; and - centrally important - a tiered system of multidisciplinary teams, from ward level up, to hold regular, minuted meetings to decide, revise and take joint responsibility for ward policy for the care and treatment of long stay patients ’. (Sue Thompson; ‘New Psychiatry’ April 15th, 1976)

Undoubtedly there was pride therefore within Bexley Hospital and the James MacLean Unit with its multi disciplinary team in place. It was a successful innovation in that all were involved in the assessment of new patients, decisions about the treatment plan, the weekly follow ups and the roll call on Wednesday afternoons.

The one disadvantage at the James MacLean Unit and the population it served was its distance - 11 miles from Lewisham. To compensate for this, Dr Brough and his team established an ‘outreach’ team in the centre of Lewisham.

Undoubtedly it was a very promising start and certainly signalled the shape of services to come.

(Added to, edited and abridged from ‘The Village on the Heath’ by Britta von Zweigbergk and Michael Armstrong)

Born ten days before war was declared in September 1939 and her father joined the RAF, Britta von Zweigbergk spent the first few months of life sleeping in a drawer in her paternal grandparents flat in Hove, near Brighton.

Thereafter, with her mother, sometimes her grandparents and eventually her brother, David, born in 1943, following her father from a safe distance between Cirencester, Wootton Bassett, North Muskham and Hove.

After the war, she moved with her family from North Muskham, near Newark in Nottinghamshire to live with her maternal grandmother, universally called Nan at 134, Elgin Avenue, Maida Vale, London W9.

It was an unusual household - the tall elegant buildings having been transformed from middle class living accommodation, with basement flats for servants pre WW2, to tenement dwellings by 1946, each floor housing a separate but open flat, connected by landings.
Room was sparse, Britta shared a bedroom with her younger brother David and cousin Michael. Next door on one side her mother Nita shared with her sister Dottie. On the other side Aunt Paddy harangued and shouted at the world in general.
The flat was the melting pot, the operational centre in which members of Nan’s large family returned periodically, and she, possessed of an open heart and generous nature, directed post war life as best she could.

Maida Vale, with its proximity to the Regents Canal and Little Venice had much to offer. It was a place that was home to a wide spectrum of social classes and had survived post war chaos in a memorable bohemian sort of way. Typical was the artist Edward Ardizzone who lived next door in Elgin Avenue, - his studio looking out along the main tree lined thoroughfare with a good view of Shirland Road and the United Dairies.
Although scarred by bomb damage during WW 2, the area retained a strong community feel and the middle flat at 134, continued to provide shelter and refuge for the Howatson and Zweigbergk families for many years on and off despite the general shortage of space.

Aunt Paddy, next door to Britta, Michael and David was prone to sudden unexpected diatribes at anyone and everyone, also singing and arguing, not to mention strange mutterings and rituals like covering the radio at night, blessing the countless pairs of shoes and believing she could recharge batteries.
Nevertheless the overriding desire to survive cemented lasting bonds. Austerity brought out strong motivation and imagination in the management of life and its small pleasures, not least by Nan’s skills at making a wonderful stew with very little and her legendary roasts, relying on the good will of local butchers and the green grocers stall along Shirland Road.
But 134 was always a temporary stop and in the immediate post war years Nita and Tony Zweigbergk and their two children were reunited in a middle floor maisonette at 2, Primrose Hill Road, - long since demolished to make way for a block of flats. Bomb encampments and the paraphernalia connected with the war was still very much in evidence and made Primrose Hill an exciting if at times potentially dangerous playground for young and adventurous children.
She has many vivid memories of the years spent there up until the summer of 1950, recalling the devastatingly cold winter of 1947 and watching her parents marriage struggling to re instate the pre war optimism and the thwarted dreams of domestic harmony and tranquility.

She went to school in Princess Road, now called Primrose Hill Primary school, but then called Princess Road School and remembers the walk as an eight year old, crossing Regents Park Road on the way to school - coming home made all the more pleasurable at the end of the afternoon by purchasing a penny slice at the bakers, conveniently near to the school, sherbet dabs and gobstoppers were also available if one had a further penny or two at the sweetshop on the corner of Chalcot Road.
School holidays were made memorable by often spending them with her paternal grandparents in Hove near Brighton. She spent some time in India and Burma with her parents as a ten and eleven year old and enjoyed the time without any conventional schooling at all. Lessons learned through the observation of life around her however remained very useful throughout the years that followed.

She survived a childhood of many moves, unconventional parents and the rapid expansion and development of civilian airlines - from the vegetable runs of Hunting Air Travel to the Berlin Airlift and the brilliantly successful car ferry venture run by Silver City Airways.
One of the advantages of such a childhood was the honing of general survival skills which has proved very useful throughout life.
During her teens she lived in the Folkestone area as her father was a civil aviation pilot, flying for Silver City Airways at the peak of its success in the 1950’s, flying from Lympne and Ferryfield Airport, Lydd (now called London and Ashford Airport)
She went on to study fine art at Folkestone and Dover Schools of Art before going on to Saint Martins, Charing X Road.

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TONY’S WAR by BRITTA VON ZWEIGBERGK

TONY’S PEACE by BRITTA VON ZWEIGBERGK

THE VILLAGE ON THE HEATH: A HISTORY OF BEXLEY HOSPITAL BY BRITTA VON ZWEIGBERGK AND MICHAEL ARMSTRONG

CYNTHIA PELL - THE BEXLEY HOSPITAL DRAWINGS

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Cynthia Pell was born with a prestigious talent, winning a national art competition in her last year at school. She was a student at Bournemouth College of Art and then Camberwell and was remembered at the latter for being the most gifted student of her year.

She married a fellow student Ron Weldon and life seemed full of promise. She spent a summer painting in France and had a solo exhibition at the Beaux Gallery, London in 1957. However all was not well and after the exhibition, she lit a bonfire outside on the street and burned her unsold work. This was a destructive pattern that recurred throughout her short life.

David Thompson, the then Times Art Critic reviewed Cynthia’s first art exhibition in May 1957. She was 24 years old.

‘ORIGINAL TALENT IN A YOUNG PAINTER’

‘A good many of the realist painters have introduced us to the informal privacy of their home life. At Miss Cynthia Pell’s first exhibition which is being held at the Beaux Art Gallery, Bruton Place, we get to know an intimate circle of friends. Forty four paintings, mostly rather small, go the round on christian name terms; there are ‘Jeanne and the children’ ‘Evie sleeping’ ‘My father and mother’ ‘Michael as poet and young lover’

But the disconcerting feature about Miss Pell’s family reunion is that she projects into a world of close relationships what one presumes is her own vision of a sick society and a doomed era. Every face is lit with anxiety and fear, the eyes glittering with fever, the hands clenched in despair. Such visions are usually expressed in the anonymous terms of a generalized humanity rather than in those of identifiable personalities and the way it is particularized in this case makes it the more disturbing.

Miss Pell paints in an expressionist manner which is often (as in ‘Mr Chalmers at the park’) strongly reminiscent of Ensor. It is sometimes ugly, sometimes overstressed and hysterical as expressionist painting so easily becomes. But the exhibition announces an interesting and original new talent.

Her, at times, stark Expressionist style drew admiration from fellow artists and critics. Patrick Hayman, the painter observed in 1958;

‘Her painting at timed, seems to have something of Sickert’s enigmatic silence and Kokoschka’s uncanny penetration into the human character’

He considered her;

‘A painter of remarkable stature. She searches for an answer about the truth of our situation in life at this moment in time, an answer to be expressed in visual terms .....it appears to me that she has a rare talent which already is beginning to flower’.

Years later when the struggle to re establish her reputation had begun - through the efforts of the artists Evelyn Williams, Natalie Dower and Paula Rego and a retrospective exhibition of her then known work was held at the Orleans House Gallery in Twickenham, John McEwen wrote in the Sunday Telegraph, August 15th 1999;

The result is a revelation ..... nothing could prepare one for the sometimes alarming yet invariably moving drawings and paintings of this gifted expressionist, with her intuitive sense of form and compassionate understanding of the human condition....’

‘Pell destroyed much of her work and a lot of what remained has been lost, but the power, tenderness and physicality of these surviving drawings and paintings, both of people and landscape is undeniable’.

A year later however 122 drawings and paintings had been uncovered during her time as an in patient at Bexley Hospital in Kent (1973-77) and led to a further exhibition at the Boundary Galley in St. Johns Wood, London. John McEwen reviewed this exhibition in the Sunday Telegraph, 3rd December 2000;

‘Pell is virtually unknown. She drew and painted portraits of her fellow inmates at a mental hospital, using any available scrap of card or paper. In the end she took her life and only by chance and through her friends, led by the artist Evelyn Williams have these works emerged and been properly honored. Yet for all her modesty of means she displays more compassion and empathy in a single drawing than (Anselm) Kiefer in all his mighty works, however hard he huffs and is puffed’.....

Reviewing the same exhibition, John Russell Taylor in the Times wrote (12th December 2000);

‘The story of Cynthia Pell is one of brilliant early success, a later career clouded by illness and posthumous discovery .....like the best of the art to emerge from concentration camps, these (drawings and paintings) are remarkable for their intense emotional quality, which completely transcends the anecdotal interest by universalizing Pell’s agonized vision’.....

The Jackdaw in November 2000 reviewed the Boundary Gallery exhibition;

‘Cynthia Pell was an extraordinary person who suffered debilitating emotional and psychological problems .....she produced a body of concentrated intense paintings, drawings and sketches, the more acute her depressive illness became the more distressing her work became’

One of the disadvantages of being a keeper of art work is that it is often stored in folders and portfolios and put in a dark corner for safety instead of being accessible to a wider audience. It was always Britta von Zweigbergk’s intention to find good homes for the bulk of her collection of Cynthia Pell’s work, particularly the Bexley Hospital drawings and 202/13 saw this intention being realised.

She was helped and supported in this by the distinguished artist and friend of Cynthia, Natalie Dower.

Finding good homes took up most of the summer of 2013 and turned out to be a satisfying venture which ensured that at least some of Cynthia’s work would be made more widely available to the public.

Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust (Successor to Bexley Hospital) took 10 pieces, mainly portraits which would hold historical links for those who had had past connections to Bexley Hospital during the 1970’s when Cynthia was a patient.

Ten works were donated to the Archives and Museum at the Bethlem Royal Hospital (see link), plus twenty books on the Bexley Hospital drawings which was an accompanying book for the exhibition of Cynthia’s work during the years at Bexley Hospital, held at the Boundary Gallery, St. Johns Wood in 2000.

An exhibition of the donated works to the Bethlem Royal opened on the 28th August 2013 and ran until the 20th September. The exhibition was titled ‘Ordinary Moments’ and the flyer for the exhibition observed; ‘Regardless of subject matter, Cynthia’s evocative work depicts an intense emotional view of the world, her experience and others’

Such exhibitions encourage wider understanding of the arts in mental health and the Bethlem Royal is a leader in this field with its archives and museum a positive treasure trove of distinguished and exciting work. a selection of Cynthia Pell’s work is to feature in an exhibition at the Museum of the Mind in the near future.

A further four works were donated to the New Hall Art Collection (click on link) based in the Murray Edwards College, Cambridge.

It is hoped that further homes can be found and venues in which to exhibit her work.

There were individuals, already patients in the hospital - in other wards - who found themselves on E1, the locked ward, on a relatively regular basis. ABL or PB (see Wards and Departments /E1) and Cynthia Pell. Cynthia’s regular ward during the first two years of her admission was R1 (The James Maclean Unit. (see ‘The Village on the Heath) and although very attached to R1 after the first few traumatic days of arrival she often got herself quite comfortable on the locked ward.

The settling down took on a particular pattern - getting her bearings, special relationships established with members of staff, particularly the night staff. Her place by the window - looking out on’; The little path that runs like a shadow under the trees (see photos), a regular cup of coffee at her side and tin of tobacco, matches and the paraphernalia of smoking near at hand, Creativity would often re assert itself in a natural flow of activity (see photo re note sent down to me in the art therapy department) My work journal at the time records Cynthia’s admission into E1 in the winter of 1975;

12th November 1975
‘Cynthia Weldon was admitted to E1 on Monday 10th November - I thought she would be - she took some paper and talked to me a great deal - quickly and excited, very manic and bursting into tears - her face crumpling up like a little girl. She looks rather terrible with hair disheveled and wearing old pyjamas with grey jacket. wants to get back to R1. Longed to go outside in the sunshine so I took her for a walk round the grounds. She picked some flowers and felt faint several times, buckling at the knees etc, so I took her back’.

Six days later there was little improvement;

18th November 1975
‘Quite busy on the ward - not so much drawing and painting but good communication. Cynthia Weldon is still very weepy - alternating between crying and laughing - quite possessive about me and getting jealous if I spoke too much to George (Charge Nurse on E1 at that time) Says she hates it in E1 - wants desperately to go back to R1 . Not eating properly - so not allowed to drink interminable cups of coffee, very upset about this - hasn’t done much drawing - saw one portrait of George - good. Also she drew the small kitten that was up on E1 last week (Sister Chris Coppins has taken her home )

The day after;

‘Worked hard on the ward, not a great deal in the way of creative response but a lot of verbal responses;
BS in bed
CW(Cynthia Weldon) Upset
SQ Flatly uncooperative
SF As soon as I opened the ward door she made a bolt for freedom - I had my hands full - with the trolley, art materials etc but did try and block her way, three or four nurses came rushing out after her and Cynthia was very helpful.
Yesterday Cynthia wept and said she didn’t like herself as she was at the moment. She said she knew she was a nuisance and that she got on everybody’s nerves and nobody liked her.
Spoke about her sister who lives in Spain. Speaks very rarely about her mother but often abut her father’.

Early in 1976, Denise Russell began coming up with me once a week, on a wednesday morning and bringing clay. During the ensuing months Cynthia had been moved from R1 to S1, which was not at all to her liking. In January 1976, I wrote in my work journal;

‘Went up to E1 with Denise, the first one since the Christmas break. After the session, I went to see Cynthia in S1 - took in her deodorant and signal toothpaste.
She kept crying - asked me if I would just let her cry, which of course I did, it’s not something I would have any control over and best to let it just flow. Although they are very nice on S1, it hardly seems the right ward for someone like Cynthia.’

After few months later;

Monday 24th May 1976
‘Unable to go up to E1 this morning as Denise had a dentist appointment and I had to cover the art therapy department, but I found some time to go up during the evening session as there was a Rehab nurse in Oaklea 1. E1 was exceedingly high overall in general mood. Cynthia Weldon was in there with a black eye - evidently she had been moved from S1 to S2 and had then tried to hang herself in the bathroom - had also tried in E1 so she is not being put in a side room and is being watched constantly.


Tuesday 25th May 1976
‘E1 was quite crowded - but not everyone wanted to do art therapy, i.e. SQ was in fairly abusive form and SB was very preoccupied and remote.
Cynthia was withdrawn, morose - thinner than ever with a large black eye. Keeps trying to strangle herself.’

Wednesday 26th May 1976
‘A very lively session in E1. Did a session in the ward with Denise and we brought up clay which proved popular.
SQ shouted abuse at both of us - called us every single name under the sun etc etc! came towards me yet again with fists raised. I got behind the trolley so that it was clearly between us, hoping to deter any attack this way - however it had absolutely no effect and I was in dire danger of being ‘klonked’ but luckily an alert male nurse was there on time.
We were both a bit jumpy after that - i.e. remembering not to turn our back whenever SQ was around. Cynthia Weldon didn’t do any art therapy and still looked terrible - thin and gaunt. Didn’t talk much and had a visitor. Nurse Naughton from S1 - who is beautifully kind to her. Cynthia kept crying
‘When I went up to E1 the following evening after the art therapy session;
Cynthia much brighter - held my hand, seemed very glad to see me and talked about having ECT’.

The next week;

Wednesday 2nd June 1976
‘Again, E1 was quite crowded. SQ in rather better mood than usual - shouted a few obscenities but didn’t attempt to attack me this time. Wonders will never cease!
Cynthia Weldon had had ECT and was asleep n her room.’

At the beginning of the following week;

Monday am 7th June 1976
‘Very hot day - nobody felt tremendously energetic including me but a lot of easy and perhaps valuable talk flowed. S said she was pleased to see me and drew a very delightful goldfish.
Cynthia Weldon looked much brighter, said she wouldn’t be drawing for a long time as ECT made her ‘ordinary’ (she smiled as she said it ). We talked quite a lot and she displayed some of her old humour

A week later the improvement had been maintained;

Monday am 14th June 1976
‘Went up briefly to E1 - as I had been preparing for an art therapy seminar - took up some paper etc. SQ swore at me but Cynthia looked brighter.’
It had been good to see this return to relative normality and Cynthia herself was excited by it. A week later I reported on a good session;
‘SQ - more friendly this time - don’t know how long this will last but it’s a relief to be getting on well with her at the moment. She showed me her new top - bought in C&A in Bromley - but she had to be brought back because she started shouting at everyone in the shop.
Cynthia - looking so much better and brighter since ECT - says she’s like to stay in E1 - she likes it - says she’ll strangle herself if she has to go back to S1 or 2, says she’s told Dr Brough. Hasn’t done any drawing but talked a great deal - wanted me to bring her in some Swan Vestas matches and some black cotton.

Cynthia often drew the view from the window in E1. She particularly liked the’ little path that ran like a shadow between the trees’ and did several versions of this in a variety of media.
Her self portraits during the time she spent in E1 became increasingly skeletal.

During the four years I knew Cynthia as an in patient in Bexley Hospital, I always knew her as Cynthia Weldon her married name. This was obviously very important to her. The person in the nurse portrait is Nurse Naughton who befriended Cynthia on S1 and gave her a great deal of support and kindness. One of the very best of nurses.

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EUSTON FILMS COMES TO BEXLEY HOSPITAL

Late summer, early autumn 1982 saw Bexley Hospital used as a backdrop for a television series, "THE NATION’S HEALTH". This was a series on Channel 4 - then in its first year of existence, a four part docudrama, at the time a rather a different approach to drama, with its lack of music and its semi documentary feel. It was also controversial as it was critical of medicine generally and the NHS in particular.

The changes since the NHS was first established in 1947 had been immense, not least the drug and rehabilitation treatments available. By 1982 there was a general emphasis in restructuring the NHS in order to make it a more business like organisation and it was with these changes that G. F. Newman’s series was concerned - for instance - the appointment of general managers, economic implications concerning drug treatment and the pharmaceutical industry, the struggling with crumbling institutions like St. Clair in the series and Bexley Hospital in reality.

The filming was divided between the Whittington Hospital, Highgate Hill, St. Olaves, a hospital with past connections to Bexley and Bexley Hospital itself. At Bexley hospital, The Camberwell Unit, a former research facility linked to Elmdene the Alcohol Dependency Unit was miraculously transformed into the ‘Brechin Unit’.

The episodes in Bexley were produced by Irving Teitelbaum with Max Stafford Clarke as Dr Hendrix and Vivienne Ritchie playing Dr Jessie Marvill.

The series overall was produced by the renowned Verity Lambert and Euston Films had a steady record at that time of producing dramas for television that became winners - like ‘Minder’, ‘The Sweeney’, and ‘Widows’.

The series followed the clinical and emotional experiences of Dr Jessie Marvill as she joined the staff of St. Clair - a large teaching hospital, like others at that time struggling with budget cuts and other difficulties. Continued survival meant a surmounting of problems that would not go away, like closure of wards, to save money, the resulting reduction in staff, the struggle between the private sector and the public. The welfare of the patients in this continued struggle often caused conflicting emotions.

One of the most striking aspects of the filming was the attention given to detail. Actors spending time wandering the endless corridors of Bexley with its shifting population of nomads and fugitives. They were not exactly under cover and true to Bexley Hospitals liberal past they were well tolerated by staff and patients alike.

Although the Hospitals identity was not disclosed in the series, first glimpses of Bexley Hospitals distinctive entrance with its gatehouse was very recognisable to those who knew the building and its grounds. There was some criticism by staff at Bexley who followed the series with great interest. They criticised the ‘squalid appearance’ of the ward depicted and an overall comment was that it was ‘over the top’.

An article in the local press highlighted this dismay as it had done with previous controversies surrounding the hospital, i.e., various news stories had circulated over past years - beetles in the kitchen, drugs being passed through windows, a ‘dangerous’ patient being transferred from Broadmoor and at that particular time a local furore over the planned construction of the Bracton Centre - A Medium Secure Unit with high fences and a forensic team

The Bexley Hospital administrator at that time, who, himself had come AFTER the filming, Mr Graham Howard commented in the article;

‘Staff who saw it when it was first shown thought it was a pretty fair reflection of life in a mental hospital
- however part was filmed in one of our empty wards which is not maintained and kept up to date. So the film probably gives a more squalid appearance. It was made a bit more intense and over the top than common day life actually is. One scene in a therapeutic group seemed to have a slightly more odd bunch of characters than we would have’.

This was Bexley Hospital management speak at its best - mild and understated. Those of us immersed in the daily life of the asylum at the time were quite approving and nodded our tacit support. Management at Bexley Hospital in the 1980’s particularly was a paternalistic affair and one tended to feel reassured by the particular vagueness of the statements that emerged at particular times.

Mr David Pinchin, on behalf of the Bexley Health Authority emphasised the fictional nature of the series na the fact that permission had been given to film some episodes in the hospital provided its identity was disguised in the film.

The storylines ranged from physical illness, operation and treatment to mental health issues and although distance was attempted to be maintained by the mild and benevolent administrative team at that time, a member of staff at Bexley Hospital did feature in the series - Sara Craze, who, as drama therapist had worked with me on Ashdown, the drug dependency Unit, She played a staff nurse in the series and her experiences at Bexley Hospital.

Oaklea 1, the art therapy department at Bexley Hospital became quite involved as art therapy was used in the series. It was good to highlight the therapies available in such places. It might have been one of the few positives in its sometimes withering view of the NHS as a whole.

The series provoked lively discussion, not least in the art therapy department. At that time it was unusual to show daily life in an asylum. And although there may have been those who complained about the squalid view of daily hospital life there was a real sense in which it seemed to add to the grittiness and raw quality of the drama. The final two episodes were filmed at Bexley Hospital and followed the tragedy of Henry Staples and his wife, Bernice Attwood.

The Camberwell Unit, in which much of the filming of the psychiatric sequences took place was conveniently near the art therapy department on the eastern side of the hospital with its views over the meadows and outer perimeter road. The unit was ideal really for the purposes of transformation and quite easily became the Brechin Unit in the series, becoming a teeming ward, full of disturbed individuals with bizarre behaviour, shouting and despair and as Mr Howard had commented ....‘A bit more intense and over the top than everyday life‘

Members of the cast prowled round the department, sitting in obscure corners and just watching. It might have been quite a shock to the system, for there was a certain bizarre quality at times, an almost surreal sense of somehow being locked in a dream at times in the department, with its paint encrusted walls, its graffiti and its trails of visitors and would be artists. There was a strong sense of anarchy and individualism and clay was used a great deal. And in fact it was clay that was used in the series, with a patient sitting in front of a piece of clay and moulding it urgently with her fingers. We had known over the years how powerful this could be and how it could contain and calm the most agitated of individuals.

The presence of these discreet onlookers did take a little time to adjust to, there was much that might appear inexplicable to an outside audience not used to the vagaries and idiosyncrasies that our acceptance helped to contain - in a department that catered for the most disturbed and restless individuals in the hospital. The corridor wanderers who often included us on their endless travels. leading me to imagine us at the centre of a giant labyrinth.

And what was our actor art therapist likely to make of it all ? The answer was in the eventual translation and we were pleased, It took the most subtle of observations to understand and explain the intuition that had become second nature for us and the development of a chameleon like personality that could adapt to various moods and to understand and know who wanted to be spoken to and who did not, who needed encouragement and who did not. It had become second nature to us over the years to be tolerant of those who merely wanted to watch, after all, initial watching may lead to eventual doing and often did. It was a role that needed seamless and swift movement into different modes, yet maintaining warm and acceptance.

The eventual result in the episode called ‘Collapse’ was a sensitive one. the patient in the episode working with clay in the kind of urgent way that was its familiar with us and the actor who played the art therapist gave a quiet and accepting, passive yet selectively transparent performance. It was quite an achievement and we were pleased that it showed a positive affirmation of art therapy and most importantly brought it to the awareness of a wide audience. It was important, particularly then, for a profession still struggling to find its feet at times. I was particularly pleased at the emphasis on the practical and the concrete strength of clay and paint as portrayed and its ability to ground and infiltrate agitation with a calmer and more settled mode.

Bexley Hospital had welcomed Euston films and it was a memorable time for those involved, staff and patients alike.

(for further glimpses of an admission ward and the art therapy department at Bexley hospital during the 1970’s/1980’s - plead refer to ‘Wards and Departments’ in ‘The Village on the heath’ by Britta von Zweigbergk and Michael Armstrong, published by Oxleas NHS Trust, 2004)

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SQUADRON LEADER TONY ZWEIGBERGK DFC (1916-1964)

Tony Zweigbergk was born in Preston, England on April 22nd 1916. He was the youngest of three brothers and of Anglo Swedish extraction. He had a happy and comfortable childhood. His father and uncle had come over from Sweden as young and talented electrical engineers in a new and rapidly flourishing industry. His Uncle Torsten in particular had displayed a gift for invention and innovation which was to prove very successful. He and Tony’s father Gillis had spent some years in America before finally settling in England. Life was not without its difficulties - not least having a Germanic sounding name. This was not helpful in the early twentieth century in connection with WW1 and in later years with WW2. World wars have a habit of inciting strong feelings and it was decided to drop the von in the surname in favor of a more anglicized version. Life as a Swedish immigrant was not always easy or straightforward. The von was not re instated until the late fifties.

Tony inherited his mothers artistic ability and also his strong sense of humor which derived from her Yorkshire roots. He enrolled at the Slade School of Art in 1934, but two years later his love of flying had overtaken his artistic inclinations and after taking the required number of flying lessons he was issued an aviators licence by the Royal Aero Club in May 1936.

When war broke out in September 1939, Tony , already in the RAFVR, waited for his call up papers and joined the RAF where he had a distinguished war career as a fighter pilot and Squadron Leader. He was a popular commanding officer, well known for his love of local hostelries and practical jokes (see’ Tony’s War).
Although possessing the best of intentions, he found domesticity and the practicalities associated with setting up home and consolidating family roots after the intense business of surviving WW2 very difficult though he made numerous attempts to do so. His occasional forays in to the multiple mysteries of ordered domestic existence did little to clarify the situation for him. When faced with unexpectedly providing lunch for his two children, he served them brussel sprouts on toast. His brief attempts at DIY consisted of a protracted stint of varnishing a two foot square area of wooden floorboards, taking most of the day to do so while the rest of the family moved in around him.

Despite having taken a plane apart and put it together again as a pilot - he had no clear idea of changing a washer on a tap and faced with the prospect of furnishing a large and empty flat in Primrose Hill, it was not to the homely comfort of chintz and cushions he turned to, but antelope skin covered shield and spears, brought over from Nairobi, not to mention fly swats and carved elephant tables from tree trunks originating from the Masai tribe of Kenya.

He played his part after the war in helping countries like India and Burma develop their own airlines and worked with the successful car ferry business Silver City Airways at Lympne and Ferryfield airfields in Kent.

Tony’s overall strategy remained unchanged throughout however. When things got too difficult - move on and the family did - on many occasions.

The truth was - Tony’s peace had a darkness about it that never shone as brightly as his war.

NITA ZWEIGBERGK (nee Howatson) 1914-2001

Nita Howatson was born in the Holy City of Benares on November 6th 1914 and did not come to England until she was two. Her earliest memories were of the heat and dust of India . She was the third child of a family of seven. Two siblings died in childhood. One older sister Winifred died at the age of six in 1917 and the youngest child, Douglas died at the age of 4 in 1929.

Her father was a doctor, born in Calcutta, West Bengal, of Anglo Indian descent. He studied medicine at Edinburgh and practiced medicine in the north of England, dying tragically early at just over forty. His younger children were sent to boarding schools financed by the British Medical Association. Nita and Dottie to the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls and Marjorie, Hugh and Douglas to the Royal Infant Orphanage at Wanstead.

Never entirely happy with the prosaic sturdy quality of school life, she parted company with the Masonic Institution by mutual consent at the age of fourteen and was enrolled at the Italia Conti School for Stage Training. For the next four years she immersed herself in ‘ Dancing, Elocution, Acting, Class Singing and Class Fencing. She shall be thoroughly trained in Classical and Character dancing and Musical Comedy Dancing’

Such notable screen stars at the time as Margaret Lockwood and Jack Hawkins had already passed through its distinguished portals and Nita hoped to follow them.

Of a glamorous disposition, she made the very most of her dark and sultry good looks and was a well known figure in pre war North Soho (later known as Fitzrovia) then frequented by a broad spectrum of artists, writers and sculptors such as Augustus John, Dylan Thomas and Jacob Epstein, among others.

She never lost her glamour though fame on stage and screen eluded her.

degree in domestic science and had worked as a manager in a large catering establishment in Stockholm. She was travelling to England, to extend her experience and to improve her English. An only child, her father was chief of police in Tidaholm and her childhood had been spent acquiring a love of animals and nature. With land and lodges owned by her family she spent a good deal of her time in the vicinity of local forests, riding and being generally adventurous and tom boyish - aware that her father had longed for a son.. She appeared an eminently suitable match and my grandfather was particularly impressed, she reminded him poignantly of his youngest sister, who had also been called Anna (Anna Inez Ultima) and who had died in 1904, after marrying a mill owner Otto Akerlund in London, four years earlier.