The history
The Royal London Hospital was founded in September 1740 and was originally named The London Infirmary. The name changed to The London Hospital in 1748 and then to The Royal London Hospital in 1980 when the Queen came to visit and gave it the added 'Royal'. The first patients were treated at a house in Featherstone Street, Moorfields in November 1740. In May 1741, the hospital then moved to Prescot Street, and remained there until 1757 when it moved to its current location on Whitechapel Road, Whitechapel, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
In March 2005 planning permission was granted for a £1 billion redevelopment and expansion of The Royal London Hospital. Sited on the grounds of the existing hospital, the redevelopment will replace the hospital's previously demolished facilities, some of which date back to when the hospital moved to its existing site in 1757. On completion of the project, the hospital will have London’s leading trauma and emergency care centre, one of Europe’s largest renal services and the capital’s second biggest paediatric service. The new building opened in February 2012.
The Royal London is part of The Barts Health NHS Trust. The Royal London provides district general hospital services for the City and Tower Hamlets and specialist tertiary care services for patients from across London and elsewhere. It is also the base for London's Air Ambulance, operating out of a rooftop helipad.
Joseph Merrick, known as the "Elephant Man", spent the last few years of life at The Royal London Hospital and his mounted skeleton is currently housed at the Medical School, but is not on public display.
The TV series Casualty 1900s is set there, and follows the everyday life of the hospital throughout these years. Some of the storylines are based on actual cases drawn from the hospital records.
Recently the Old Royal London Hospital sold for £9m to Tower Hamlets council for a site for the new town hall.
The Explore
So we ventured into London on a Friday night, myself @Alexander Zach and a non-member. The evening started off badly with us getting busted at The Chest Hospital and the most over the top comical security guard ever. “Don’t move or I will fucking hurt you” was just one of his quotes. By the time the 7 members of the Met’s finest got there my sides hurt with laughing at Mr OTT.
Once the police had joked about with us and walked us out of the site we headed off to The Royal London.
The streets around the place where heaving with people, well it was 9:30 on a Friday night. After a quick walk around the outside we found a potential entry point and in we went. Once inside the building it was all a little odd.
We had heard that it was being used for filming so expected to walk into maybe a camera crew or some “actors” so were on tenterhooks already. But this shit was weird. The Royal London Signs had been crudely covered up to read Greater London Hospital and various other signs had been changed to make floors different to what they were etc.
We had a wander around and snapped various wards, corridors etc. Then found that some parts of the hospital were bricked up making it impossible to get in them.
The place has some killer staircases and amazing corridors. We found very little decay.
What we did find was a very freaky bedroom set up. When I say bedroom I mean a proper complete bedroom. Bed, shelves, books; bedside table’s etc etc @Alexander Zach has a pretty amazing picture of the bed that I'm sure you will see when he reports it.
All in all we had a good 41/2 hours in there and had a great laugh. The roof access although a little tight gave us a great view of the city.
Please enjoy the pictures
The Royal London Hospital was founded in September 1740 and was originally named The London Infirmary. The name changed to The London Hospital in 1748 and then to The Royal London Hospital in 1980 when the Queen came to visit and gave it the added 'Royal'. The first patients were treated at a house in Featherstone Street, Moorfields in November 1740. In May 1741, the hospital then moved to Prescot Street, and remained there until 1757 when it moved to its current location on Whitechapel Road, Whitechapel, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
In March 2005 planning permission was granted for a £1 billion redevelopment and expansion of The Royal London Hospital. Sited on the grounds of the existing hospital, the redevelopment will replace the hospital's previously demolished facilities, some of which date back to when the hospital moved to its existing site in 1757. On completion of the project, the hospital will have London’s leading trauma and emergency care centre, one of Europe’s largest renal services and the capital’s second biggest paediatric service. The new building opened in February 2012.
The Royal London is part of The Barts Health NHS Trust. The Royal London provides district general hospital services for the City and Tower Hamlets and specialist tertiary care services for patients from across London and elsewhere. It is also the base for London's Air Ambulance, operating out of a rooftop helipad.
Joseph Merrick, known as the "Elephant Man", spent the last few years of life at The Royal London Hospital and his mounted skeleton is currently housed at the Medical School, but is not on public display.
The TV series Casualty 1900s is set there, and follows the everyday life of the hospital throughout these years. Some of the storylines are based on actual cases drawn from the hospital records.
Recently the Old Royal London Hospital sold for £9m to Tower Hamlets council for a site for the new town hall.
The Explore
So we ventured into London on a Friday night, myself @Alexander Zach and a non-member. The evening started off badly with us getting busted at The Chest Hospital and the most over the top comical security guard ever. “Don’t move or I will fucking hurt you” was just one of his quotes. By the time the 7 members of the Met’s finest got there my sides hurt with laughing at Mr OTT.
Once the police had joked about with us and walked us out of the site we headed off to The Royal London.
The streets around the place where heaving with people, well it was 9:30 on a Friday night. After a quick walk around the outside we found a potential entry point and in we went. Once inside the building it was all a little odd.
We had heard that it was being used for filming so expected to walk into maybe a camera crew or some “actors” so were on tenterhooks already. But this shit was weird. The Royal London Signs had been crudely covered up to read Greater London Hospital and various other signs had been changed to make floors different to what they were etc.
We had a wander around and snapped various wards, corridors etc. Then found that some parts of the hospital were bricked up making it impossible to get in them.
The place has some killer staircases and amazing corridors. We found very little decay.
What we did find was a very freaky bedroom set up. When I say bedroom I mean a proper complete bedroom. Bed, shelves, books; bedside table’s etc etc @Alexander Zach has a pretty amazing picture of the bed that I'm sure you will see when he reports it.
All in all we had a good 41/2 hours in there and had a great laugh. The roof access although a little tight gave us a great view of the city.
Please enjoy the pictures
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