Birmingham City Hospital / Dudley Road Hospital
Background
The story of the hospital dates back to the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 and the opening of the new Birmingham Union Workhouse Infirmary in 1852.
The hospital as we know it today grew from the workhouse, as an extension during 1889 and into the 1900's. A lot of the workhouse has been demolished with the entrance arches removed in 2017.
The extension consisted of a quarter-mile long corridor with nine wards extending from the corridor, the extension was created under the designs of W.H.Ward which utilised the plans proposed by nurse and social reformist Florence Nightingale. The design implemented the "Nightingale Wards" formed by large and open-plan area for quick access and monitoring of patients by nursing staff.
The hospital would form into an infirmary during 1897 before becoming known as Dudley Road Infirmary in 1912.
The map below shows a the hospitals layout around this time. The site we know today is marked as the infirmary, the numerous wards to the right/east now demolished and replaced with the 1950's maternity hospital.
Jumping forward briefly, to 2004, a priest would be bought in to perform an exorcism whilst part of the former workhouse was demolished for renovation work. This was after a group of workmen found themselves locked inside after hearing "cries" from within.
Anyway, back to the serious stuff.
Through the early 1900's Dudley Road Hospital would begin to grow with Chief Medical Officer Fredrick Ellis in charge of the site.
Post world war, after the site was relieved of military duties, Ellis began to introduce a new scheme for caring to the poor and unwell whilst providing training towards treating the chronically sick. This acted as a means to utilise those of a consulting rank to work and provide nurses with far more training than previously seen in workhouses and infirmaries, creating a model for all later hospitals across the country.
As the second world war came to a close the formation of the National Health Service in 1948 saw Dudley Road Hospital expand once again and by 1949 the maternity hospital had began construction and the large A&E block would be added soon after.
As expansion and modernisation continued into the 2010's, it was seen that the hospital was becoming outdated, a plan to merge emergency care and specialist treatments into one centre formed the creation of the Midland Metropolitan Hospital. The land was purchased in 2011 with a plan to open by 2016.
Eight years later than planned, both City Hospital and Sandwell Hospital's A&E (more on that later) would transfer to Midland Met' with City Hospital being fully wound down by mid-November.
Further reading:
www.workhouses.org.uk
The Visit
As news began to circulate around the opening of the Midland Met' our sights were quickly focused on City Hospital. Following a few days of planning, and not wanting to miss out like I did with Royal Liverpool, myself and @mockney reject found ourselves powering through the rain into Birmingham hoping to take in the sights before the possibility of doing so vanished.
The A&E block seen from the end of the infirmary.
With no real plan on how to get in or any ideas surrounding access, we threw ideas back and fourth in the car before attempting to put something into place. As somewhat expected, our initial thoughts were quickly crushed and we substituted these for going straight to the heart of the site. Thankfully we got in, a lot quicker than expected, and began to cautiously meander through the numerous wards and side rooms whilst attempting to cool down in very warm building.
Photos
I'll start the photos in order of front to back.
Starting in the front entrance, next door to A&E, which forms part of the 1950's extension and directly flows through to the original corridors and nightingale wards. Note the massive HikVis camera...
The eastern half of the 50's extension is mostly uninspiring outside of the A&E areas and consist of the X-Ray and outpatients dept.
The front of the 50's building is dedicated to student and staff offices.
Towards the newer 2005 built treatment centre, there are a lot of consultation rooms which appear fairly original.
This side room was the only one left unlocked. What came as a surprise were the retro light-boxes and the 50's lamp left in situ. At a guess, this extension remained fairly untouched due to being considered more modern than the aging infirmary wards.
Background
The story of the hospital dates back to the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 and the opening of the new Birmingham Union Workhouse Infirmary in 1852.
The hospital as we know it today grew from the workhouse, as an extension during 1889 and into the 1900's. A lot of the workhouse has been demolished with the entrance arches removed in 2017.
The extension consisted of a quarter-mile long corridor with nine wards extending from the corridor, the extension was created under the designs of W.H.Ward which utilised the plans proposed by nurse and social reformist Florence Nightingale. The design implemented the "Nightingale Wards" formed by large and open-plan area for quick access and monitoring of patients by nursing staff.
The hospital would form into an infirmary during 1897 before becoming known as Dudley Road Infirmary in 1912.
The map below shows a the hospitals layout around this time. The site we know today is marked as the infirmary, the numerous wards to the right/east now demolished and replaced with the 1950's maternity hospital.
Jumping forward briefly, to 2004, a priest would be bought in to perform an exorcism whilst part of the former workhouse was demolished for renovation work. This was after a group of workmen found themselves locked inside after hearing "cries" from within.
Anyway, back to the serious stuff.
Through the early 1900's Dudley Road Hospital would begin to grow with Chief Medical Officer Fredrick Ellis in charge of the site.
Post world war, after the site was relieved of military duties, Ellis began to introduce a new scheme for caring to the poor and unwell whilst providing training towards treating the chronically sick. This acted as a means to utilise those of a consulting rank to work and provide nurses with far more training than previously seen in workhouses and infirmaries, creating a model for all later hospitals across the country.
As the second world war came to a close the formation of the National Health Service in 1948 saw Dudley Road Hospital expand once again and by 1949 the maternity hospital had began construction and the large A&E block would be added soon after.
As expansion and modernisation continued into the 2010's, it was seen that the hospital was becoming outdated, a plan to merge emergency care and specialist treatments into one centre formed the creation of the Midland Metropolitan Hospital. The land was purchased in 2011 with a plan to open by 2016.
Eight years later than planned, both City Hospital and Sandwell Hospital's A&E (more on that later) would transfer to Midland Met' with City Hospital being fully wound down by mid-November.
Further reading:
The Workhouse in Birmingham, Warwickshire
The Visit
As news began to circulate around the opening of the Midland Met' our sights were quickly focused on City Hospital. Following a few days of planning, and not wanting to miss out like I did with Royal Liverpool, myself and @mockney reject found ourselves powering through the rain into Birmingham hoping to take in the sights before the possibility of doing so vanished.
The A&E block seen from the end of the infirmary.
With no real plan on how to get in or any ideas surrounding access, we threw ideas back and fourth in the car before attempting to put something into place. As somewhat expected, our initial thoughts were quickly crushed and we substituted these for going straight to the heart of the site. Thankfully we got in, a lot quicker than expected, and began to cautiously meander through the numerous wards and side rooms whilst attempting to cool down in very warm building.
Photos
I'll start the photos in order of front to back.
Starting in the front entrance, next door to A&E, which forms part of the 1950's extension and directly flows through to the original corridors and nightingale wards. Note the massive HikVis camera...
The eastern half of the 50's extension is mostly uninspiring outside of the A&E areas and consist of the X-Ray and outpatients dept.
The front of the 50's building is dedicated to student and staff offices.
Towards the newer 2005 built treatment centre, there are a lot of consultation rooms which appear fairly original.
This side room was the only one left unlocked. What came as a surprise were the retro light-boxes and the 50's lamp left in situ. At a guess, this extension remained fairly untouched due to being considered more modern than the aging infirmary wards.
X-Ray Department
The X-Ray department was similar in retro design features. The stainless-steel bars along the door feel like they've been ripped from an American themed diner.
Front desk.
Annoyingly, the machinery was a hidden under a lot of junk.
The extension merges with the early hospital through this jetbridge-style corridor on the upper floors.
CT & MRI
As we poked through the last of the imaging departments, into CT, we were greeted to this sight. For some reason, this gave us the feeling that we'd be walking into a load of staff packing up the department.
The control room.
Thankfully, one of the doors into the CT rooms were open. As we'd later discover, a majority of the hospital was locked up with key-card access systems.
We eventually pushed into the main corridors and figuring the internal camera systems would be dead. Despite being heavily modernised, the remaining details were pleasant to see.
Into the first of many wards.
Acute Medical Unit
It's always pleasant to see the "good bye" messages across the walls.
Having figured out a way into the ward, we were greeted by the first of many beds.
And more beds.
Once out into the corridors again, we started to become wary of our time and pushed towards finding the theatres.
Oral Surgery
With the maps inside the hospital being difficult to understand, it took a while to find anything other than wards. Eventually, we managed to start seeing the signs of what we wanted.
Recovery bays
The two Rosie Ross Suite theatres (Numbers 14 and 15) all house modern KLS-MarLED lamps and have the large airflow hood surrounding the surgical area. The rooms appear to have been a later extension or a rebuild of previous theatres.
Across the ward are the three older theatres, presumably dating back to around the 1950's or 60's judging by the design and the fact the block is nestled between two of the nightingale wards.
A pairing of ALM lamps, similar to the Papworth examples. Annoyingly, the control and light panels were completely dead.
These triangular SimeonLED lamps were an interesting find.
The third theatre was loaded with junk stored for later removal.
Back out into the corridors.
To Be Continued...
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