According to Booktrade info
there is copyright trouble brewing for Great Ormond Street on the Peter Pan front again as a new graphic novel The Lost Girls has Wendy up to some rather unchildlike activities and not much sewing involved by all accounts.
Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, London has been the recipient of royalties from Peter Pan since J.M.Barrie made a gift of the copyright in 1929 with the express wish that the sum derived should never be disclosed.Lets hope money isn't squandered in prolonged legal battles and whatever the outcome the spirit of Barrie's bequest is upheld. Few can have predicted how crucial this income would be for the hospital all those years ago, though if I'm sent a bill for scanning this picture from my ancient old copy I might just say I think I paid my dues.
It is little known that within the precints of the hospital there is the most dazzling little Victorian chapel completed in 1875 and dedicated to St Christopher. A mere 30ft square but highly ornate and gilded to within an inch of its life in the High Church ecclesiastical style, first impressions are of a microcosm of grandeur and sumptuous opulence.
The pews are tiny child-sized ones and as very junior student nurses we were often delegated to take patients down there for an afternoon service where we sat, with our knees touching our chins, trying to keep our little charges in order. In the late 1800's all families attended a service of thanksgiving in the chapel before a child was allowed home.
I didn't appreciate the beauty of the place then, it seemed a bit tasteless and vulgar to me back in the 1970's, but I visited again a few years ago and was completely awestruck by what I found.
It really is worth a peek around the door if ever you find yourself nearby.
Don't forget to look upwards, The Pelican in Her Piety surrounded by the Angel Orchestra adorns the perfect miniature dome above your head.
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