It’s certainly been a while since we had an explore on this scale and what an explore it was! After an early start, a McDonalds breakfast and quick fuel stop we arrived at Selly Oak Hospital to spend the next two hours looking for an access point.
Tag: hospital
History shamelessly stolen from another report found on google…
A revisit and re-explore on this site covering the bits missed previously. But just in case you missed our previous report, here’s the history again.
Derbyshire Royal Infirmary (DRI) was established in 1810 on land formerly part of Derby’s Castlefield estate on land near what is now Bradshaw Way and the A6 London Road. It was known as the Derbyshire General Infirmary at the time. In 1890 a Typhoid outbreak sweeped through the hospital, and the buildings design was blamed.
Denbigh Asylum
The North Wales Lunatic Asylum was the first psychiatric institution built in Wales; construction began in 1844 and completed in 1848 in the town of Denbigh. The U-shaped Tudorbethain style hospital was built due to the spreading word of mistreatment of Welsh people in English asylums; The North Wales Hospital would be a haven for welsh speaking residents to seek treatment without prejudice or a language barrier.
Derby Royal Infirmary
Derbyshire Royal Infirmary (DRI) was established in 1810 on land formerly part of Derby’s Castlefield estate on land near what is now Bradshaw Way and the A6 London Road. It was known as the Derbyshire General Infirmary at the time. In 1890 a Typhoid outbreak sweeped through the hospital, and the buildings design was blamed. The hospital is entirely demolished, a year later Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone of what would become Derbyshire Royal Infirmary. The neo-Jacobean building was completed in 1894, and its main features were its ‘Onion’ shaped domed towers and its central corridor which ran the length of the hospital.
St Edwards Hospital & School
Coleshill, not far from the NEC, is a large group of buildings owned by the Catholic church. The site is operated by The Father Hudson Society, which was originally founded by a priest, Father George Vincent Hudson. Father Hudson died in 1936 and was buried in the grounds though he was later disinterred and reburied within the Society’s church. Though there are active buildings on site there are also a number of abandoned buildings too.
St Margarets Asylum
The large mansion on site, Great Barr Hall, had its beginnings in the 17th Century, but was remodelled both by Joseph Scott in 1777, and in the 19th century by various occupants.
The Lunar Society, an infomal group of leading engineers, industrialists, scientists and thinkers of the day met here in the early 1800s. the hospital colony for those with severe learning difficulties was opened after the first world war. Originally known as Great Barr Park Colony for the mentally defective, it was later re-named St Margarets Hospital.
Napsbury Hospital
The Middlesex County Asylum was founded in 1898 with the hospital designed in a country estate style by architect Rowland Plumbe in 1900, who also rebuilt, to his designs, the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel in 1897.
Harperbury Asylum
Harperbury was opened in 1928, converted from a few aircraft hangers, to care for both adult and children with learning difficulties and sever epileptics. After the formation of the NHS Trust the hospital amalgamated with and moved to Leavensden hospital leading to the closure of the site.