Visited with Ella.
We originally went to the Southall building to do the bits we missed but someone had repaired the fence. Looking at our maps Ella suggested this place although we thought the chances of us getting in were slim. However, the gods of urbex looked out for us and it was almost a walk on. We had to avoid a car on site that we assumed belonged to security but we never saw any sign of security. Spent about 4 hours here, has some lovely decay and you have to ignore an alarm going off in the canteen.
We returned a couple of weeks later as we discovered we missed a big chunk of it, same way in, avoid the car, all was good until we bumped into another group who were students on A permission visit checking it out for filming. We think they tipped off the security guard and he found us after we had left the main building and were trying to find a way in another. secca man was filming us on his phone and ella noticed he was actually filming our arses and an argument ensued where he refused to show us his SIA badge (he was wearing a hi vis with no ID), he eventually deleted his footage of us. I called him a nonce.
Since we have been others have gone there and secca are now actually doing their jobs and I assume they have sealed it.
edit - I should have added its most recent use was as a training hospital hence the ward with beds and the baby resuscitation units. The police have also used it for firearms training.
History -
Holborn Union Building
In a time before the NHS and social security, this site was a workhouse and infirmary for some of the most vulnerable people in Victorian society.
A new "poor law" was introduced in 1834 to reduce the costs of looking after impoverished people and take homeless people off the street.
Workhouse inmates would be clothed and fed, with children getting limited access to education The Holborn Union Infirmary, which is now has its own conservation area, included long, airy "Nightingale" wards with windows either side to create a through-draught. This design was influenced by the works of Florence Nightingale, who, in her 1860 Notes on Nursing, wrote: "Always air from the air without, and that, too, through those windows through which the air comes freshest. From a closed court, especially if the wind do not blow that way, air may come as stagnant as any from a hall or corridor."
Clerkenwell and Islington Guide Oonagh Gay takes groups around Archway and talks them through the history of the workhouses that once operated in the area. “A number of unions, including Holborn, brought up land around Archway because it was cheap. Because land was cheap they could sort of export the problem - Holborn is nowhere near Islington but they could build easily there. It's a bit like some councils shipping homeless people to places like Northamptonshire today. They would have been reasonably grim places but not awful because people couldn't work and they tried to contain diseases there."
The Archway Road infirmary was renamed the Holborn and Finsbury Hospital in 1921, before the London County Council renamed it Archway Hospital in 1930. When the NHS was founded the site was merged with St Mary's Hospital, in Highgate Hill, and Highgate Hospital, in Dartmouth Park Hill, to create the Whittington Hospital.
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The Holborn Union Infirmary opened in 1879 on the west side of Archway Road, Highgate. The four-storey building had 625 beds, with female wards at the south part and male wards at the north. A recreation area at the back of the Infirmary was divided across the centre to keep the sexes apart. A two-storey block on the east of the site contained receiving wards, a doctor's residence and a dispensary.
In 1912 the nursing staff quarters were extended at the southern end of the site.
In 1921 it was renamed the Holborn and Finsbury Hospital.
In 1928 the Hospital took over Furnival House in Cholmeley Park for use as a Nurses' Home.
In 1930, following the abolition of the Boards of Guardians, the Hospital came under the administrative control of the LCC, who renamed it the Archway Hospital.
By 1948, at the advent of the NHS, it had merged with St Mary's Hospital, situated across the road in Highgate Hill, and the Highgate Hospital in Dartmouth Park Road. The three Hospitals became the Whittington Hospital. The Archway Hospital became the Archway Wing, with 416 beds.
By 1977 the Whittington Hospital, under the North London Group Hospital Management Committee, had just under 2000 beds.
In the 1970s the 8-storey Furnival Building was added to the site and, in the 1980s, the 3-storey Ely Building.
In 1998 the Archway Wing of the Whittington Hospital was sold by the NHS and jointly purchased by University College London and Middlesex University.
2008 The Hospital building survives and was the Archway Campus, an education and research facility for health-related professionals, which opened in 1999.
The Archway Campus closed in August 2013 and the site has been sold to Peabody for redevelopment in 2014.
Furnival House has been sold for redevelopment into luxury apartments.
We originally went to the Southall building to do the bits we missed but someone had repaired the fence. Looking at our maps Ella suggested this place although we thought the chances of us getting in were slim. However, the gods of urbex looked out for us and it was almost a walk on. We had to avoid a car on site that we assumed belonged to security but we never saw any sign of security. Spent about 4 hours here, has some lovely decay and you have to ignore an alarm going off in the canteen.
We returned a couple of weeks later as we discovered we missed a big chunk of it, same way in, avoid the car, all was good until we bumped into another group who were students on A permission visit checking it out for filming. We think they tipped off the security guard and he found us after we had left the main building and were trying to find a way in another. secca man was filming us on his phone and ella noticed he was actually filming our arses and an argument ensued where he refused to show us his SIA badge (he was wearing a hi vis with no ID), he eventually deleted his footage of us. I called him a nonce.
Since we have been others have gone there and secca are now actually doing their jobs and I assume they have sealed it.
edit - I should have added its most recent use was as a training hospital hence the ward with beds and the baby resuscitation units. The police have also used it for firearms training.
History -
Holborn Union Building
In a time before the NHS and social security, this site was a workhouse and infirmary for some of the most vulnerable people in Victorian society.
A new "poor law" was introduced in 1834 to reduce the costs of looking after impoverished people and take homeless people off the street.
Workhouse inmates would be clothed and fed, with children getting limited access to education The Holborn Union Infirmary, which is now has its own conservation area, included long, airy "Nightingale" wards with windows either side to create a through-draught. This design was influenced by the works of Florence Nightingale, who, in her 1860 Notes on Nursing, wrote: "Always air from the air without, and that, too, through those windows through which the air comes freshest. From a closed court, especially if the wind do not blow that way, air may come as stagnant as any from a hall or corridor."
Clerkenwell and Islington Guide Oonagh Gay takes groups around Archway and talks them through the history of the workhouses that once operated in the area. “A number of unions, including Holborn, brought up land around Archway because it was cheap. Because land was cheap they could sort of export the problem - Holborn is nowhere near Islington but they could build easily there. It's a bit like some councils shipping homeless people to places like Northamptonshire today. They would have been reasonably grim places but not awful because people couldn't work and they tried to contain diseases there."
The Archway Road infirmary was renamed the Holborn and Finsbury Hospital in 1921, before the London County Council renamed it Archway Hospital in 1930. When the NHS was founded the site was merged with St Mary's Hospital, in Highgate Hill, and Highgate Hospital, in Dartmouth Park Hill, to create the Whittington Hospital.
**********
The Holborn Union Infirmary opened in 1879 on the west side of Archway Road, Highgate. The four-storey building had 625 beds, with female wards at the south part and male wards at the north. A recreation area at the back of the Infirmary was divided across the centre to keep the sexes apart. A two-storey block on the east of the site contained receiving wards, a doctor's residence and a dispensary.
In 1912 the nursing staff quarters were extended at the southern end of the site.
In 1921 it was renamed the Holborn and Finsbury Hospital.
In 1928 the Hospital took over Furnival House in Cholmeley Park for use as a Nurses' Home.
In 1930, following the abolition of the Boards of Guardians, the Hospital came under the administrative control of the LCC, who renamed it the Archway Hospital.
By 1948, at the advent of the NHS, it had merged with St Mary's Hospital, situated across the road in Highgate Hill, and the Highgate Hospital in Dartmouth Park Road. The three Hospitals became the Whittington Hospital. The Archway Hospital became the Archway Wing, with 416 beds.
By 1977 the Whittington Hospital, under the North London Group Hospital Management Committee, had just under 2000 beds.
In the 1970s the 8-storey Furnival Building was added to the site and, in the 1980s, the 3-storey Ely Building.
In 1998 the Archway Wing of the Whittington Hospital was sold by the NHS and jointly purchased by University College London and Middlesex University.
2008 The Hospital building survives and was the Archway Campus, an education and research facility for health-related professionals, which opened in 1999.
The Archway Campus closed in August 2013 and the site has been sold to Peabody for redevelopment in 2014.
Furnival House has been sold for redevelopment into luxury apartments.
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