1987: Wishing Well Appeal for Great Ormond Street Hospital

Reproduction of a poster used during the Wishing Well Appeal. The page is split into thirds. The top third has black text on a white background. In large font, the text reads Great Ormond Street needs your blood (Actually a donation would do)." The middle third of the page is a large black and white photograph of the hospital building. To the left of the hospital is a drawing of a drip stand - a metal pole from which a back of blood is hung. The blood bag is drawn in red, and the tube coming from the bag is drawn attached to the hospital building, thus implying the hospital is receiving a blood donation. The bottom third of the page is black text on a white background. The text is organised in bullet points - each bullet symbol is a blue teardrop as used in the logo of the appeal. The text reads: "Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital must have an injection of cash. It needs to raise over £72 million for re-building works. About £30 is being given by the NHS. It still needs to raise £42 million from donations." The very bottom of the page reads: "The Wishing Well Appeal. Patrons: TRH The Prince and Princess of Wales."
Poster used during the Wishing Well Appeal. Image courtesy of Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Reproduction of a captioned photograph used during the Wishing Well Appeal. The top two thirds of the page is a black and white photograph of a baby lying in a hospital crib. The baby's arm is in a brace. Over the baby's head is a ventilator. There are various other tubes and cables connected to the baby. In the bottom third of the page there is black text on a white background. The text reads "The Wishing Well Appeal for Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital. The fifty year old wards are too small for the modern equipment that is needed to keep a child stable after a complex operation. There is insufficient space for nurses and parents who spend hours in cramped rooms caring for sick children." The text ends with contact details for the hospital press office and the appeal press office.
Photograph of a patient used during the Wishing Well Appeal. Image courtesy of Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Image of a poster which was shared during the wishing well appeal. The poster has black text on a grey background with no images. The text reads: "We have every doctor a child needs under one roof. The trouble is the roof's falling in."
Text used during Wishing Well Appeal. Image courtesy of Great Ormond Street Hospital.

In 1987, Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) launched the Wishing Well Appeal to raise money for an extensive redevelopment of the hospital. At the time, 9,000 in-patients and 60,000 out-patients were treated annually. The hospital’s buildings and facilities were inadequate and outdated. The public were encouraged to donate to the appeal to “help Great Ormond Street get better”.

The Prince and Princess of Wales – patrons of the appeal – described the reputation of the hospital: “Throughout the world people see this wonderful hospital as a centre of medical excellence and a source of human goodness; often they turn to it for help for their own children, training for their doctors and nurses and as an example of enlightened child care.”  

The Appeal featured a wide array of fundraising events and activities including: 

  • The Wishing Well song, featuring an ensemble of pop stars and celebrity guests – a format that became a popular in the 1980s.  
  • An auction, run by Christies auction house, at which hundreds of items were sold – including two Lamborghinis donated by a patient’s parent. The auction raised £531,000. 
  • An exhibition tennis match, featuring Boris Becker, Pat Cash, Stefan Edberg, and Henri Le Conte (all top ten tennis players at the time). The televised match was attended by the Princess of Wales and raised £161,000. 
  • A VOLVO dealer incentive programme which raised £170,000. 
  • A Tower for a Tot event, in which people were encouraged to make ‘towers’ of coins through donating spare pennies.
  • A penguin ‘swimathon’, including swimming pools and clubs across London. 
  • The sale of 1,000 Alders ‘Jingle Bears’ (teddy bears), raising £100,000.

In total, the Wishing Well Appeal raised £54 million (worth nearly £200 million in 2023 prices), and a further £30 million was provided by the UK Government. It was the largest appeal ever conducted by a UK charity.  

A photograph of an album cover of The Wishing Well song. The cover includes the text: "The Wishing Well" and "GOSH!". There are also photographs of some of the singers involved in the appeal: Peter Cox (top left), Grace Kennedy and Boy George (bottom left). On the right there is a photo of actress and singer Bonnie Langford with a group of children and adults waving to the camera and holding t-shirts with the word GOSH written on them and leaflets with the GOSH logo. The logo is the drawing of a child's face with a teardrop coming from on eye.
Album cover art of The Wishing Well song. Image used with consent of Great Ormond Street Hospital. Album art believed to be owned by record label or unidentified graphic artist.
Page from a fundraising leaflet for the Wishing Well Appeal. The page is light blue. Most of the text is in black. The top of the page has the Hospital's logo - a drawing of a child's face with a teardrop falling from its cheek. Below the logo reads, in large blue capitals: "Why Great Ormond Street is Unique." Below this, the rest of the text in black reads: "Great Ormond Street is unique because it is the only children's hospital in the country which deals with every known childhood condition under one roof. Great Ormond Street, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Hackney, the Institute of Child Health and the Charles West School of Nursing are grouped together organisationally. This enables them to enjoy a very close working relationship whilst allowing them to pursue their own particular function. Great Ormond Street is a tertiary referral centre. For many children Great Ormond Street is the last resort, whereas Queen Elizabeth Hospital acts as a district children's hospital for the local East London communities of Hackney and Tower Hamlets. Research and teaching is undertaken at the Institute of Child Health, the post-graduate medical and research centre of the University of London. The Charles West School of Nursing plays a large part in the training of the country's paediatric nurses: almost 50% of children's nurses are trained here. The uniqueness of Great Ormond Street has enabled it to gain a worldwide pre-eminence for excellence in paediatric care."
Description of Great Ormond Street Hospital included in booklet appealing for funds. Image courtesy of Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Reproduction of a poster used during the Wishing Well Appeal. The page is split into thirds. The top third has black text on a white background. In large font, the text reads "Help Great Ormond Street get better. We need more than a hospital model to make us a model hospital". In the top right corner of the poster is the logo fort he appeal - a drawing of a child's face with a teardrop on its cheek. The middle third of the page is a large black and white photograph of the model of the proposed new hospital building for which the campaign is fundraising. The bottom third of the page is black text on a white background. The text is organised in bullet points - each bullet symbol is a teardrop as used in the logo of the appeal. The text reads: "Great Ormond Street needs to urn the dream of a new light-filled 5 storey hospital block into a reality. The new block will house six badly needed operating theatre suites with recovery rooms and will be equipped with latest technology. A highly specialised 30-cot intensive care unit will care for sick babies. Mums and Dads will now be able to spend the night in comfort on purpose-built divan beds with their children. Nurses and doctors will have the valuable space and equipment they need to care for sick children." The very bottom of the page reads: "The Wishing Well Appeal. Patrons: TRH The Prince and Princess of Wales." Whilst this reproduction is in black and white, in the original the teardrops on the page (both the bullet points and in the logo), the Words "Help Great Ormond Street get better" and "The Wishing Well Appeal" are all in blue.
Poster used during the Wishing Well Appeal. Image courtesy of Great Ormond Street Hospital.