Report - Harold Wood Mortuary - May 09

randomnut · May 4, 2009

Very last minute decision to visit this place but i'm glad we did. I was surprised we managed to get as far as we did, the entrance was swarming with police and security from what looked like some kind of car accident on the driveway.

Because of the activity we didn't visit the main hospital, just the mortuary and a few of the outlying buildings.

"The hospital was opened in 1909 by West Ham County Borough council, as the Grange convalescent home for children, which operated with the nearby Plaistow fever hospital. The Grange had been a private house, built in 1884 by John Compton, owner of the Gubbins estate. The convalescent home was maintained by the county borough until the Second World War, as an emergency hospital. After the war it became a permanent hospital, and in the 1960s was significantly enlarged.

The hospital later became part of the Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospitals NHS Trust. It was closed on 13 December 2006 with patients and functions relocated to Queen's Hospital and to King George Hospital. The site vacated by the hospital has been earmarked for a 470-home housing development.[2] The original plan to keep certain NHS facilities has been superseded and the entire plot has been approved for residential development. Local residents are opposing the proposal of over 800 dwellings, including a 9 storey block."