Birmingham Dental Hospital - September 2018.
Visited with @mockney reject and a non-member. If you don't like wide angle shots of dentist's chairs, then I suggest you look away now.
Fair to say that this one has been on the cards ever since it closed in 2016, however we've never put too much effort in because externally it's a largely uninspiring 60s tower block, and it was always assumed that it would be modern and stripped inside. As it turns out this isn't too far from the truth, however mockney's insatiable appetite for epic persuaded me to take a closer look, and it certainly surpassed expectations. Parts of the building are indeed stripped and devoid of any charm - however, we were pleasantly surprised to find that a lot of the original signage and carpentry remained in situ which gave it a nice old school feel in places.
I can't find much in the way of history, however from what I gather the hospital was built in 1963 and dealt with dental cases that were too complex for local dental practices. The hospital was also home to the University of Birmingham School of Dentistry, and provided high quality dental treatment, together with undergraduate and postgraduate training for dental students, dentists, dental nurses and dental hygiene therapists. In April 2016 services were transferred to a new £50 million facility at Pebble Mill in Edgbaston, and the St Chad's Queensway site closed it's doors.
It was an interesting explore this one. Whilst it was straightforward enough to get inside, within about 30 seconds the shit had well and truly hit the Vent Axia big time and the world's loudest fucking alarm started wailing. The proximity of the alarm box to the live children's hospital next door meant that a hasty retreat was in order, and sure enough within about 2 or 3 minutes a group of confused security bods had gathered outside. It was decided that the 'keep setting the alarm off until they get too bored to investigate' tactic (which has served me so well over the years) was the best plan of attack, and so over the course of the evening it was set off another 3 times..
As it happens this was largely unnecessary, as upon our return in the morning we took a different route upon entry and it became apparent that the only working PIR is right next to the front door. Something to keep an eye out for if you plan on going here - the ground floor atrium is out of bounds but otherwise you've got carte blanche to do what you want.
Some photos from the clinical floors - we were literally punching the air with joy when we first realised that the dentist's chairs hadn't been stripped, however by the time we'd seen 6 floors of the damn things we couldn't wait to see the fucking back of them!
Note the lack of curtains in the above pictures - no privacy whatsoever. A number of more private demonstration rooms and clinics were scattered around the place, where students could observe operations:
Reception, nothing epic but still fairly old school:
The top floor seemed geard towards the university side of things, with a number of laboratories and teaching rooms:
It was also on the upper floors that the dental technicians had their laboratories:
A squat and boxy floor that had been added to the roof housed a fairly uninspiring estates department:
The real highlight for me, however, was the operating theatre wing on the first floor. The theatres felt like they hadn't been modernised in decades, and indeed still retained the original control panels from the early 1960s. These are probably some of the best theatres I've seen.
The pediatric operating theatre:
Ground floor lecture theatre:
A couple from the (very 60s) main stairwell:
Note the grey plasterboard to the left of the pillar in the above photo. This hides an extraordinary old paternoster lift, which consists of a chain of open compartments that would have moved slowly in a loop up and down inside the building without stopping. This would have enabled passengers to step on or off at any floor they liked - this was no doubt partitioned off many years ago due to the fun sponges at the health and safety exec, though it was nice to see that it still remains intact!
Thanks mockney <3
Visited with @mockney reject and a non-member. If you don't like wide angle shots of dentist's chairs, then I suggest you look away now.
Fair to say that this one has been on the cards ever since it closed in 2016, however we've never put too much effort in because externally it's a largely uninspiring 60s tower block, and it was always assumed that it would be modern and stripped inside. As it turns out this isn't too far from the truth, however mockney's insatiable appetite for epic persuaded me to take a closer look, and it certainly surpassed expectations. Parts of the building are indeed stripped and devoid of any charm - however, we were pleasantly surprised to find that a lot of the original signage and carpentry remained in situ which gave it a nice old school feel in places.
I can't find much in the way of history, however from what I gather the hospital was built in 1963 and dealt with dental cases that were too complex for local dental practices. The hospital was also home to the University of Birmingham School of Dentistry, and provided high quality dental treatment, together with undergraduate and postgraduate training for dental students, dentists, dental nurses and dental hygiene therapists. In April 2016 services were transferred to a new £50 million facility at Pebble Mill in Edgbaston, and the St Chad's Queensway site closed it's doors.
It was an interesting explore this one. Whilst it was straightforward enough to get inside, within about 30 seconds the shit had well and truly hit the Vent Axia big time and the world's loudest fucking alarm started wailing. The proximity of the alarm box to the live children's hospital next door meant that a hasty retreat was in order, and sure enough within about 2 or 3 minutes a group of confused security bods had gathered outside. It was decided that the 'keep setting the alarm off until they get too bored to investigate' tactic (which has served me so well over the years) was the best plan of attack, and so over the course of the evening it was set off another 3 times..
As it happens this was largely unnecessary, as upon our return in the morning we took a different route upon entry and it became apparent that the only working PIR is right next to the front door. Something to keep an eye out for if you plan on going here - the ground floor atrium is out of bounds but otherwise you've got carte blanche to do what you want.
Some photos from the clinical floors - we were literally punching the air with joy when we first realised that the dentist's chairs hadn't been stripped, however by the time we'd seen 6 floors of the damn things we couldn't wait to see the fucking back of them!
Note the lack of curtains in the above pictures - no privacy whatsoever. A number of more private demonstration rooms and clinics were scattered around the place, where students could observe operations:
Reception, nothing epic but still fairly old school:
The top floor seemed geard towards the university side of things, with a number of laboratories and teaching rooms:
It was also on the upper floors that the dental technicians had their laboratories:
A squat and boxy floor that had been added to the roof housed a fairly uninspiring estates department:
The real highlight for me, however, was the operating theatre wing on the first floor. The theatres felt like they hadn't been modernised in decades, and indeed still retained the original control panels from the early 1960s. These are probably some of the best theatres I've seen.
The pediatric operating theatre:
Ground floor lecture theatre:
A couple from the (very 60s) main stairwell:
Note the grey plasterboard to the left of the pillar in the above photo. This hides an extraordinary old paternoster lift, which consists of a chain of open compartments that would have moved slowly in a loop up and down inside the building without stopping. This would have enabled passengers to step on or off at any floor they liked - this was no doubt partitioned off many years ago due to the fun sponges at the health and safety exec, though it was nice to see that it still remains intact!
Thanks mockney <3
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