From Reporter Issue 100 

SUNNY BANK: A MOVE AND A NEW MISSION

The Sunny Bank Hospital on rue des Petits Juas in Cannes was for several generations one of the central institutions in the life of the English-speaking community. Founded in the eighteen-nineties, it changed little until the Second World War. This is clear enough from a fascinating memoir — reviewed in Reporter n° 86 — by Elsie Gladman, a former nurse at the hospital. She arrived in 1936 to find an establishment which “closed from mid-May to September when the area was deserted”. The clientele, both of residents and visitors, was still largely drawn from the affluent class which chose to live or spend part of the year on “the Riviera”. The war was a bad time. The Italians behaved more or less decently but the Nazis were their usual selves. Miss Gladman, along with colleagues and some elderly stranded patients, spent an anxious time, comforted only by listening to the BBC on a wireless set in the hospital cellar.

As in many fields, the early years after 1945 may have allowed the belief that the pre-war world could be revived. That wasn’t to be the case. Certainly, by the late sixties it was evident that, economically and technically, the kind of “cottage hospital” that Sunny Bank was simply couldn’t survive. And yet survive it did into the nineties, thanks to the fierce determination of a group of supporters of the hospital. They can be admired, certainly, but it’s also the case that they were blind to obvious changes, both in the nature of medical care and — above all — in the character of the English-speaking community.

There was, as we’ve recorded in these pages, a good deal of discussion about the future of Sunny Bank which finally closed as a hospital in 1997. A new project emerged and this has been pursued by a committee which is chaired by retired banker Peter Durlacher and includes two local doctors, Patrick Ireland and Marc Brunelli. What does this project envisage? To find out I talked to Peter Durlacher. “What we’re looking at is the opening of an English-speaking medicalised retirement home. The market’s there, that’s clear. Many people now spend a substantial part of their lives here and when they come to retire they don’t really feel it appropriate to return to their home countries. After all, it’s probably here they’ve got their family and friends, or many of them, and it’s here there’s the way of life they most readily understand. But there’s another point: gerontologists say that in later life many people feel happier using their own language, even if they’ve become very fluent in another. And this seems to support our concept.”

I met Peter Durlacher on the site of the new Sunny Bank in Mouans-Sartoux. “This is essentially an abandoned farm — it covers over 18,000 square meters — and we bought it with the proceeds of the sale of the old building in Cannes. Once we’ve got planning permission (and it’s on the way) we’ll start building. We really think we’ll have a very attractive facility. It’s within easy distance of Cannes in attractive countryside. It’s not isolated, either for residents or their visitors. We’re looking at 80 to 85 beds plus other facilities — restaurants, guest-rooms and so on. Rooms will be of high-rated hotel standard — private bathrooms, satellite TV and the rest — and the food will be worth eating. Of course, when you’re talking about the elderly you’re dealing with a varied group, from the wholly independent to those in need of a lot of care and there’ll be separate sections for different categories. We’ll have trained nurses on site and English-speaking doctors on call.”

So when will the new Sunny Bank open its doors? “We’d hope to welcome our first residents in the summer of 2006. We think there’ll be a lot of interest. It offers, I’d say, for those who’ve spent a happy and fulfilling time living and working on the Côte d’Azur an ideal setting to spend their later years.” 

Obviously, detailed information is not yet fully available but Peter Durlacher is happy to talk to anyone interested in the project. The old Sunny Bank benefited from numerous legacies and the new committee hopes that it will continue to attract such support.

© Patrick Middleton 

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