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History.
The first buildings on the site of Selly Oak Hospital were those of the King's Norton Union Workhouse, featured in the image below. It was a place for the care of the poor and was one of many workhouses constructed throughout the country following the introduction of the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. This act replaced the earlier system of poor relief, dating from 1601.
At Selly Oak, a separate infirmary was built in 1897 at a cost of £52,000. It was the subject of much heated debate as the original estimate had been £18,000. It was a light, clean and practical building, and generally a source of much pride. The guardians took great care and gathered information from other infirmaries to ensure that the final design, put out to a competition and won by Mr. Daniel Arkell, was up-to-date and modern.
The infirmary accommodated about 250 patients in eight Nightingale wards and smaller side wards and rooms. There was also provision for maternity cases. Between the two main pavilions were a central administration block, kitchens, a laundry, a water tower, doctors' rooms and a telephone exchange. There was no operating theatre or mortuary and, in the workhouse tradition, the internal walls were not plastered, painted brick being considered good enough for the sick paupers. The workhouse and infirmary were separated by a high dividing wall and were run as separate establishments.
The hospital grew in size with more buildings built, including the morgue, theatres & and a few laboratories. The hospital closed in 2012, due to the newer hospital been built with more facilities, much larger then the original and a more modern. Shorty after the closer of the Hospital, the buildings have stood intact and even still had working lights in some of the buildings, But after time it became a hot spot due to the amount of copper and materials left inside, this lead to people setting up camp on site and completely stripping most of the buildings back. In the past few months the main hospital has been looking in it's worst state, with corridors you can't even walk down due to the extent of damage caused.
Currently the site is up for demolition, where 650 houses will be built within the site the hospital once was. Slowly but surely you can see signs of work been done, footings and old pipe work is been dug up ready for new piping etc. It'll be sad to see this place go, but things have to move on.
The visit
Visited with @BrainL. We'd previously done the main hospital and the morgue and we wanted to adventure over to the other side of the hospital. We walked around and got into the admin block, x-ray block, outpatients and a few more ( can't remember names) I wish I done this a few months back, because once inside it was pretty much bare, big piles of " scrap" had been assembled and wasn't the same. Anyways we both seen things we hadn't before and we was very chuffed with the result.At Selly Oak, a separate infirmary was built in 1897 at a cost of £52,000. It was the subject of much heated debate as the original estimate had been £18,000. It was a light, clean and practical building, and generally a source of much pride. The guardians took great care and gathered information from other infirmaries to ensure that the final design, put out to a competition and won by Mr. Daniel Arkell, was up-to-date and modern.
The infirmary accommodated about 250 patients in eight Nightingale wards and smaller side wards and rooms. There was also provision for maternity cases. Between the two main pavilions were a central administration block, kitchens, a laundry, a water tower, doctors' rooms and a telephone exchange. There was no operating theatre or mortuary and, in the workhouse tradition, the internal walls were not plastered, painted brick being considered good enough for the sick paupers. The workhouse and infirmary were separated by a high dividing wall and were run as separate establishments.
The hospital grew in size with more buildings built, including the morgue, theatres & and a few laboratories. The hospital closed in 2012, due to the newer hospital been built with more facilities, much larger then the original and a more modern. Shorty after the closer of the Hospital, the buildings have stood intact and even still had working lights in some of the buildings, But after time it became a hot spot due to the amount of copper and materials left inside, this lead to people setting up camp on site and completely stripping most of the buildings back. In the past few months the main hospital has been looking in it's worst state, with corridors you can't even walk down due to the extent of damage caused.
Currently the site is up for demolition, where 650 houses will be built within the site the hospital once was. Slowly but surely you can see signs of work been done, footings and old pipe work is been dug up ready for new piping etc. It'll be sad to see this place go, but things have to move on.
The visit
Thanks for looking
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