London children’s hospital built in 60,000 LEGO bricks

Hospitals have been a mainstay of the LEGO City theme since its very beginnings, but there’s never been an official set on the scale of Gary Davis‘ huge model of the Evelina Children’s Hospital in London. Gary knows the real building well, having visited it many times as a volunteer with Fairy Bricks — the charity which provides LEGO sets for children in hospital. He and Kev Gascoigne (‘Chief Fairy’ at Fairy Bricks) came up with the idea to build the model to celebrate the Evelina’s 150th anniversary.

The model took two months to design, a process which saw Gary poring over photographs and architects’ drawings, and given tours by staff of back-of-house areas to ensure the details would be correct. It took 60,000 bricks, and three months worth of building to put the model together — and somehow Gary also managed to move house during this time! The model is quite an achievement, managing to capture the distinctive shape of the real-world building, and stuff a detailed interior with minifigure action spread across examination rooms, offices, intensive care units, staff rest areas, and the atrium coffee shop and play area.


The model recreates the curved glass roof of the hospital’s atrium, and the modern styling of the building itself. The Evelina staff got involved in the construction, putting together beds for the wards and designing minifigures to represent themselves. There are cutaway walls to showcase all the details inside the various departments and rooms, and there’s even the Fairy Bricks van parked out front — no doubt on another LEGO-gifting visit. The rear of the display is just as detailed as the front and interior. That’s a lot of masonry profile bricks used in the facade!

The finished hospital was unveiled at the Evelina with the help of patient Marina Yaqobi, who put the last of the model’s 200 minifigures into the display — a figure designed to look like her. Last year, Marina spent eight months at the hospital receiving eventually successful treatment for serious lung and kidney problems. Gary, who was there when Marina put the final touches to the display, said “The build was challenge at times, but I’m really looking forward to Evelina London’s staff, as well as the children and young people, seeing it for the first time.”

Photos courtesy of Fly at Fairy Bricks.

2 comments on “London children’s hospital built in 60,000 LEGO bricks

  1. Bekimoth

    I just can not fully enjoy this build just because of the damaged 1×6 plates that were used to connect the sunshades to the glass roof. I feel like there are many possibilities to solve this without cutting bricks to fit.

  2. Barry Walker

    I don’t care about cut bricks, or how they made it, what’s important is that they did. Anything that makes people aware of Evelina is great in my eyes. My son would not be here now if it wasn’t for the amazing staff at Evelina..

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