Hospital garden in Cambridge to honour Syd Barrett

A childhood friend of Pink Floyd legend Syd Barrett is developing a hospital garden in his honour.

Syd's Garden will be "laced with little clues" about the singer, according to Stephen Pyle.

Designed as a restful area for patients and staff, it will open in the grounds of Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge in 2018.

Barrett, a founder member of Pink Floyd, died in 2006 after living locally as a semi-recluse.

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The garden has been designed by sculptor Mr Pyle and Paul Herrington, a garden designer. Their charity, Art Garden Health, creates and maintains green spaces for NHS hospitals at no public cost.

Addenbrooke's offered them a plot a year ago - and fundraising got under way.

Mr Pyle knew Barrett as a young man when the two began Saturday art classes at Cambridge's Homerton College.

They were also members of band Those Without, which toured Cambridge youth clubs and pubs between 1963 and 1965.

They studied together at the Cambridge School of Art before Barrett left for London - and Mr Pyle began a career in theatre set design.

"Syd's sister said he liked roses," said Mr Pyle.

"And there'll be a striped colour theme, which fans will recognise.

"The artwork on his first solo album is turquoise and orange, and Paul worked with those colours.

"There's also a nod to Abbey Road's crossing."

The centrepiece will be a circular sculpture, depicting a teenage Barrett on a bicycle, armed with a guitar and a paint palette.

"This was the Syd I knew at art school," said Mr Pyle.

"The 18-year-old, the free wheeler.

"He wasn't ambitious for glory, just very creative and anarchic. He was very charismatic - and very, very talented."

He described Barrett as a "celebrated son of Cambridge", who returned to the city and lived as a recluse until his death in 2006.

In October 2016 a specially-designed artwork unveiled in the foyer of the Cambridge Corn Exchange in October 2016, where he played his last live gig.

A blue plaque was also dedicated to him in Cambridge as part of BBC Music Day 2017.