1940s murals help recover lost memories

A care home in Northumberland has found an innovative way to make residents feel at home – and to jog the memories of dementia sufferers.

The hallways of De Baliol care home in Newbiggin by the Sea, Northumberland, have been decorated with photographs and paintings to create the illusion that residents are looking through windows onto old-fashioned shop fronts and sea views.

“We wanted to create an atmosphere that would stimulate memories of the local area of yesterday and today,” said care home administrator Sylvia Richardson.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

“We involved all the residents and the staff – but almost all the work has been done by Chris Brosnan, our maintenance man. The fantastic photos were taken by Robert Miller, from Stakeford, and enlarged to create a local scene.”

Brosnan told Metro he had been “let loose” to paint the hallways. “The idea, for people with dementia, is to bring memories back, to create a street which looks the way things did when they were younger,” he said.

“We included the views of the beach because a lot of people will have spent time there, so it’s about trying to jog some happy memories.”

A more extensive version of the idea is due to open in Kent in 2020, when Britain gets its first “dementia village”, an idea imported from the Netherlands.

In Dutch dementia villages, residents can choose to live in a 1950s-style house, visit a 1970s-style cornershop or even wait at a “bus stop” on a perfectly safe street – all without leaving their care home grounds.

Take our survey for your chance to win £100 John Lewis vouchers