A time capsule buried by the late Diana, Princess of Wales in March 1991 has been reopened after 34 years. The box was sealed to mark the laying of the foundation stone of the hospital’s Variety Club Building, which opened in 1994.
The wooden box, which contained Kylie Minogue’s Rhythm of Love album and a passport, was meant to be opened after “hundreds of years” but has been dug up for the construction of a children’s cancer centre. Two children, who had won a Blue Peter competition and were intended to represent life in the 1990s, helped the royal to choose items to put in the time capsule.
The album and passport were among the ten items found inside the box.
The CD, passport and a sheet of recycled paper were chosen by David Watson, who was 11 at the time, from Paignton, Devon.
Sylvia Foulkes, then aged nine, from Norwich, chose to include a collection of British coins, a container with five tree seeds, and the snowflake hologram.
A copy of the Times newspaper was also found in the box, which was from the date that the box was buried.
Princess Diana, who died at the age of 36 in August 1997, became president of Great Ormond Street Hospital [Gosh] in 1989 and visited the children’s hospital several times before her death.
Images that have been released by archivists show some damage to the items from the time capsule – but they are largely intact.
The burial of the time capsule was similar to a ceremony in 1872, in which the then-Princess of Wales, Alexandra, sealed and buried one at the same hospital.
Unlike Diana’s one, the time capsule from 1872 has never been found.
