Birmingham City Hosp
City Hospital dates back to 1887, when the foundations of an infirmary for the Birmingham Union Workhouse were laid in March of that year.
The infirmary was designed by W.H. Ward. It was based on a design championed by Florence Nightingale, who personally wrote to experts telling of the infirmary’s ‘good work’ in caring for the non-infectious sick. Officially opened in 1889, the building incorporated a quarter-mile long corridor, with nine pavilions and open-air bridges connecting wings to allow for air circulation. To celebrate its opening, Queen Victoria sent two volumes of books to start a hospital library. Later that year a Nurses’ Home was built.
The infirmary modernised quickly, with X-ray facilities introduced in 1912. The workhouse closed, and the site’s sole purpose became that of an infirmary. During the First World War around 54,000 military patients were treated at the hospital.
In 1920 the infirmary officially became a District General Hospital, funded exclusively by the City Council. The teaching of obstetrics arrived in 1922, though midwifery was far removed from the facilities on site today. In 1925, Mr Neville Chamberlain, Minister of Health opened a new deep X-ray department at the hospital.
During World War II it was decided the facility would remain a civil hospital. It still did its part for the war effort however, transforming its new maternity block into a casualty clearing facility for service and air raid casualties.
On the 5th of July 1948 the National Health Service (NHS) was introduced, with the hospital under the control of the Regional Hospital Board. The hospital’s first specialist diabetic clinic opened in 1950. Birmingham Hospital Radio was founded in 1952 and the Olga Snowden School of Nursing opened its doors in 1959.
During the 1960s the hospital opened a postgraduate centre to giving medical students the chance to continue learning in a hospital environment. The decade also witnessed the opening of the Windmill Theatre Suites, while building began on the Outpatients and A&E departments.
The Explore
This was another find credited to my non forum mate & with my slithering abilities we make a good team.
Im unsure what blocks these are but first we squeezed into this lovely deco block.
this was very decayed but of really nice design, it looks like very little had been touched in here for years.
This was genuinely a moss covered carpet!
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Lovely locker room
