Time capsule sealed by Princess Diana unearthed at London hospital

Items from a 1991 time capsule sealed by Princess Diana at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, Thursday. The time capsule was unearthed prior to construction of the hospital's new cancer center.

Items from a 1991 time capsule sealed by Princess Diana at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, Thursday. The time capsule was unearthed prior to construction of the hospital's new cancer center. (Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children)


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KEY TAKEAWAYS
  • A 1991 time capsule sealed by Princess Diana was unearthed in London on Thursday.
  • Workers born in or employed during that year led the reveal, which included a pocket TV, a Kylie Minogue CD, and tree seeds.

LONDON — A time capsule sealed by Princess Diana in 1991 has been dug out of a children's hospital in London to enable the construction of a new cancer center.

Workers who were either born in 1991 or already working at the hospital in 1991 helped remove the capsule which revealed items including a pocket size television, Kylie Minogue CD, and some tree seeds, according to a press release Wednesday from the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children.

Janet Holmes, senior health play specialist, who was working at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in 1991, said her favorite item was the pocket TV.

"It brought back so many memories seeing the pocket TV in there; I had bought one for my husband back in the day, for when he had a break whilst driving his coach around the country. They were very expensive then," Holmes said, according to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children.

Princess Diana attends the sealing of a time capsule at a children's hospital in London in March 1991. The contents of the time capsule were unearthed on Thursday.
Princess Diana attends the sealing of a time capsule at a children's hospital in London in March 1991. The contents of the time capsule were unearthed on Thursday. (Photo: Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children)

The late Diana, Princess of Wales, was president of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in 1989 and was known for regularly visiting children at the hospital in the heart of London. She was part of the time capsule ceremony in March 1991 when Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children was laying the foundation for its Variety Club Building.

Two young people who won a national competition provided the items for the capsule. They had been asked to suggest memorabilia that represented life in the 1990s. There was also a solar-powered calculator, a collection of British coins, a snowflake hologram, a sheet of recycled paper and a European passport.

Rochana Redkar, clinical fellow in pediatric haematology oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, was excited to see the unearthing.

"It was so lovely to be part of this event. I had just joined Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children six months before, and I was so excited to be involved in the removal of the time capsule, which was buried the year I was born," Redkar said, according to the press release.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Jennifer Hauser

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