Visited with @Chloe Explores and Zoe.
Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful in its decay. The whole hospital reminded me so much of West Park.
So we arrived near by and found parking a little way away and started off with exploring a soggy Derp with no roof at the car park. Turned out to be a toilet block. Turned out it was no ordinary toilet block or car park, when we finished the hospital Ward and returned to the car the behaviour of some men in the woods and sat in cars plus a sudden appearance of a police car told us it was perhaps a gay dogging spot. Google confirmed it was and I then deleted my browsing history.
When we walked through the grounds we could see security sat at the bottom of a short hill, so keeping out of their view access was relatively easy. The paint peel is amazing but it was hard to figure out which rooms were used for what purpose. I guess the wards were on the ground floor given there was no lift that we could find for transporting patients upstairs. A lot of the rooms are full of furniture and one of paperwork for supplies. We did go upstairs but Zoe was the only one brave enough to stand on the landing area and took some photos from there for us with our cameras, we just didn’t trust the floor enough to explore up there.
A lovely explore with no problems and we slipped out the way we came unnoticed.
History -
A hospital for children recovering from infectious diseases was founded in 1882 by Miss Mary Wardell, who converted her house, Sulloniacae, near the junction of Wood Lane with Brockley Hill. The building became a military convalescent home in 1915 and was bought by the Shaftesbury Society at the end of the First World War on the death of Miss Wardell, who had retained a smaller house to the west. The Royal National Orthopaedic hospital bought the property in 1920 as a country branch, together with 4 a. of garden, after undertaking to provide convalescent treatment in accordance with a trust set up by Miss Wardell.
In 1933 the trustees of the Zachary Merton Trust offered to pay for the erection of a convalescent home. This was built in the northwest part of the grounds and was opened by the Duchess of Gloucester in March 1936. It had 44 beds and was named the Convalescent Ward.
Around 1961 The Convalescent Ward, built in 1936, was renamed the Zachary Merton Ward.
In the late 1970s the kitchen and domestic offices of Zachary Merton Ward were adapted for research use by the Scoliosis Unit of the Institute.
Children were transported from the operating theatre in another part of the hospital to the Zachary Merton Ward by a towed ambulance (rather like a caravan) but, when the last ambulance broke a rear axle, Bloomsbury Health Authority refused to pay for it to be mended. The Zachary Merton Ward was forced to close.
The building was to be refurbished as part of the programme to house families whose children are being treated at the hospital. The hospital revealed in 2011 that the hospital planned to name the new unit after Princess Eugenie. The building still stands derelict.
Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful in its decay. The whole hospital reminded me so much of West Park.
So we arrived near by and found parking a little way away and started off with exploring a soggy Derp with no roof at the car park. Turned out to be a toilet block. Turned out it was no ordinary toilet block or car park, when we finished the hospital Ward and returned to the car the behaviour of some men in the woods and sat in cars plus a sudden appearance of a police car told us it was perhaps a gay dogging spot. Google confirmed it was and I then deleted my browsing history.
When we walked through the grounds we could see security sat at the bottom of a short hill, so keeping out of their view access was relatively easy. The paint peel is amazing but it was hard to figure out which rooms were used for what purpose. I guess the wards were on the ground floor given there was no lift that we could find for transporting patients upstairs. A lot of the rooms are full of furniture and one of paperwork for supplies. We did go upstairs but Zoe was the only one brave enough to stand on the landing area and took some photos from there for us with our cameras, we just didn’t trust the floor enough to explore up there.
A lovely explore with no problems and we slipped out the way we came unnoticed.
History -
A hospital for children recovering from infectious diseases was founded in 1882 by Miss Mary Wardell, who converted her house, Sulloniacae, near the junction of Wood Lane with Brockley Hill. The building became a military convalescent home in 1915 and was bought by the Shaftesbury Society at the end of the First World War on the death of Miss Wardell, who had retained a smaller house to the west. The Royal National Orthopaedic hospital bought the property in 1920 as a country branch, together with 4 a. of garden, after undertaking to provide convalescent treatment in accordance with a trust set up by Miss Wardell.
In 1933 the trustees of the Zachary Merton Trust offered to pay for the erection of a convalescent home. This was built in the northwest part of the grounds and was opened by the Duchess of Gloucester in March 1936. It had 44 beds and was named the Convalescent Ward.
Around 1961 The Convalescent Ward, built in 1936, was renamed the Zachary Merton Ward.
In the late 1970s the kitchen and domestic offices of Zachary Merton Ward were adapted for research use by the Scoliosis Unit of the Institute.
Children were transported from the operating theatre in another part of the hospital to the Zachary Merton Ward by a towed ambulance (rather like a caravan) but, when the last ambulance broke a rear axle, Bloomsbury Health Authority refused to pay for it to be mended. The Zachary Merton Ward was forced to close.
The building was to be refurbished as part of the programme to house families whose children are being treated at the hospital. The hospital revealed in 2011 that the hospital planned to name the new unit after Princess Eugenie. The building still stands derelict.
