Cambridge Military Hospital.
CMH Dates back to 1879 as the fourth of the Hospitals in Aldershot with the first of these two having closed by the time of CMH's opening the third, the Cannaught Hospital, closing in 1973. CMH was named after the duke of Cambridge opening in June 1879. The hospitals purpose was to receive wounded military personnel and became the first to treat patients from the western front in WW1. Later the hospital became the first within the British empire to conduct what would become known as plastic surgery and became a specialist in the field as well as pioneering in portable operating theatres and housing the Army's Chest Unit. As with most buildings of this age the closure was due to high running costs, maintenance and asbestos closing in 1996. The hospital sat vacant guarded a team of ex-millitary personnel until purchase in 2014 for housing developments.
Anyway, the Louise Margret Maternity Hospital.
This was a smaller hospital structure situated next to the main hospital and is often included as part of Cambridge Military Hospital (CMH for short). This maternity hospital opened in July 1898 for the wives of the British Army's personnel in Aldershot named after the Princess Louise Margret who laid the foundation stone. This hospital, although small, housed around 53 beds across 11 wards with small details such as staircases with shallow steps to allow midwives and nurses in long dresses to run up/down them with ease.
(Image from Wikipedia)
Later in 1908 an operating theatre was added opening in 1909 with a new "Brilliant Light", mixed hot and cold water and elbow operated taps which are features still found in modern theatres.
Throughout the 1920's there we additions made to bring areas up to standard as well as additions to the building.
The hospital's high standards were used in a promotion of antenatal care by the British Medical Association, out of 2000 women with one not receiving antenatal care there were only two recorded maternal deaths. Later in 1937 the nurses home was added connected by a corridor, which has since been bulldozed disconnecting the two buildings.
The 1980's saw the hospital become part of the Cambridge Military Hospital by administrators and later closed in January 1995 shortly after the last baby was born within.
Today this structure is treated, as part of the main hospital next door, as a building of local importance and will soon become housing retaining all pre-1926 features.
(Sources: Wikipedia mostly)
The Visit
I have had this on my to do list since starting out in this hobby but never got around to it due to the apparently high security. Eventually, with development pushing on it was now or never especially as we had missed out on the morgue.
Parking up some distance away, for no apparent reason, we walked for a bit and found ourselves at the fence scrambling over to get inside. There had always been one reason I wanted to visit here and it layed in the operating theatre. Unfortunately the lights, which I assume from the rest of the hospital may have been a pair of Hanaulux Oslo lamps, have been removed. The bleeding effect on the doors is from the filming of a TV show created with paint that has since been exaggerated by ongoing decay.
Anyway's the other bits.
A rather small ward, perhaps for just newborns?
Next were some of the many smaller rooms, I assume for those in labour, judging by the Hanaulux Heidelberg Operating lamps.
For some reason I either forgot to take any photos of the wards and hallways or lost them since one of the 2 SD cards I used decided to corrupt itself.
After this we went onto the min hospital and once inside we were greeted with scaffold and bare corridors. Oh, and an alarm!
With that, that'll be all.
CMH Dates back to 1879 as the fourth of the Hospitals in Aldershot with the first of these two having closed by the time of CMH's opening the third, the Cannaught Hospital, closing in 1973. CMH was named after the duke of Cambridge opening in June 1879. The hospitals purpose was to receive wounded military personnel and became the first to treat patients from the western front in WW1. Later the hospital became the first within the British empire to conduct what would become known as plastic surgery and became a specialist in the field as well as pioneering in portable operating theatres and housing the Army's Chest Unit. As with most buildings of this age the closure was due to high running costs, maintenance and asbestos closing in 1996. The hospital sat vacant guarded a team of ex-millitary personnel until purchase in 2014 for housing developments.
Anyway, the Louise Margret Maternity Hospital.
This was a smaller hospital structure situated next to the main hospital and is often included as part of Cambridge Military Hospital (CMH for short). This maternity hospital opened in July 1898 for the wives of the British Army's personnel in Aldershot named after the Princess Louise Margret who laid the foundation stone. This hospital, although small, housed around 53 beds across 11 wards with small details such as staircases with shallow steps to allow midwives and nurses in long dresses to run up/down them with ease.
Later in 1908 an operating theatre was added opening in 1909 with a new "Brilliant Light", mixed hot and cold water and elbow operated taps which are features still found in modern theatres.
Throughout the 1920's there we additions made to bring areas up to standard as well as additions to the building.
The hospital's high standards were used in a promotion of antenatal care by the British Medical Association, out of 2000 women with one not receiving antenatal care there were only two recorded maternal deaths. Later in 1937 the nurses home was added connected by a corridor, which has since been bulldozed disconnecting the two buildings.
The 1980's saw the hospital become part of the Cambridge Military Hospital by administrators and later closed in January 1995 shortly after the last baby was born within.
Today this structure is treated, as part of the main hospital next door, as a building of local importance and will soon become housing retaining all pre-1926 features.
(Sources: Wikipedia mostly)
The Visit
I have had this on my to do list since starting out in this hobby but never got around to it due to the apparently high security. Eventually, with development pushing on it was now or never especially as we had missed out on the morgue.
Parking up some distance away, for no apparent reason, we walked for a bit and found ourselves at the fence scrambling over to get inside. There had always been one reason I wanted to visit here and it layed in the operating theatre. Unfortunately the lights, which I assume from the rest of the hospital may have been a pair of Hanaulux Oslo lamps, have been removed. The bleeding effect on the doors is from the filming of a TV show created with paint that has since been exaggerated by ongoing decay.
Anyway's the other bits.
A rather small ward, perhaps for just newborns?
Next were some of the many smaller rooms, I assume for those in labour, judging by the Hanaulux Heidelberg Operating lamps.
For some reason I either forgot to take any photos of the wards and hallways or lost them since one of the 2 SD cards I used decided to corrupt itself.
After this we went onto the min hospital and once inside we were greeted with scaffold and bare corridors. Oh, and an alarm!
With that, that'll be all.
