East London Health Project: 1978-1980 Grassroots Art Campaign Against NHS Cuts

In 1978, artists Loraine Leeson and Peter Dunn launched the East London Health Project, a community art initiative designed to highlight concerns about reductions in National Health Service funding in their area. They collaborated with a steering committee that included representatives from health worker unions, the East London Trades Council, and the Tower Hamlets Health Campaign. Over two years, the project produced nine informational posters intended as 'visual pamphlets' for display in health centers, hospital waiting areas, and other community spaces. These works were later acquired by the Science Museum in 2007. In a recent reflection 45 years after the project ended, Leeson and Dunn discussed several key posters. One, titled 'Mental illness is class conscious,' featured a friend of Leeson's portraying distress and linked mental health outcomes to poverty, inadequate housing, and poor working conditions. Another, 'Putting Quarts in Pint Pots,' used the metaphor of overflow to critique healthcare capacity shortages exacerbated by funding cuts and privatization. A third poster, 'You can't have it if you let them eat it,' depicted a cake celebrating 30 years of the NHS being consumed by rats, symbolizing the impacts of inflation and privatization. Dunn recounted that sourcing stuffed rats for the photo was delayed because the Monty Python comedy team had rented all available ones in London. A fourth work, 'Passing the Buck,' critiqued multinational pharmaceutical companies through an image of businessmen passing money toward a castle constructed from pills and syringes; the accompanying pill castle model is also in the Science Museum's collection. Reflecting on the present, both artists noted that many issues they addressed—including underfunding, privatization, and health inequalities—persist or have worsened. They emphasized the ongoing dedication of NHS staff despite systemic challenges.