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Report (Permission Visit) - - Cambridge Military Hospital - Aldershot - June 2015 | Asylums and Hospitals | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report (Permission Visit) - Cambridge Military Hospital - Aldershot - June 2015

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Zdarlight

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Yeah, so, in the process of doing some photography work for the local newspaper, I got the chance to have a nose around the CMH for a full afternoon, with pretty much free reign. It's a hard life...

Bit of history from Wikipedia:

The Cambridge Military Hospital, built by Messrs Martin Wells and Co. of Aldershot, was located at Stanhope Lines. It was named after Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, and opened on 18 July 1879. In the First World War, the Cambridge Hospital was the first base hospital to receive casualties directly from the Western Front. The Cambridge Hospital was also the first place where plastic surgery was performed in the British Empire.

After the Second World War, with the decline in importance of Britain's military commitments, civilians were admitted to the hospital. It pioneered the supply of portable operating theatres and supplies for frontline duties. The hospital also contained the Army Chest Unit. It was closed on 2 February 1996 due to the high cost of running the old building as well as the discovery of asbestos in the walls.

We got a tour from the developers on the day, which was pretty much access-all-areas (inc. clock tower, children's wards, basement, etc.), and were also given the freedom to poke around wherever we wanted in the meantime (which led to me nearly getting lost and left behind a couple of times, but I certainly wasn't complaining about that). I only wish we'd got a chance to see the maternity wards, but they're not deemed as 'safe to access' yet, so they weren't included in the 'tour'. Meh.

The angle of our piece for the paper was mainly going upon the future of the building, so it was interesting to listen in to the conversations our reporter was having - also pretty reassuring in some ways. There's been a lot of noise going around about demolition etc, but as far as I gather, the entirety of the main building is going to be preserved. The developers have been working over the last few months on making it safe (which unfortunately - from a photographer's perspective - has involved a lot of removal of peeling paintwork, dirt and pigeon shit and debris and stuff), before they move on to the asbestos removal. Still plenty of spiders in the clock tower though :D

As for said clock tower, apparently the developers were saying they hope to turn it into a publicly-accessible aspect of the building, rather than just remodeling it into a fancy penthouse. It would definitely be a shame to lose that view.

Their attitude to the presence of the occasional urbexer in the building wasn't the worst, to be honest - one of the guys showing us around has been on 28DL and is genuinely impressed with with the work people have been doing to document the building, but did of course say they can't condone it because health and safety, gonna get sued if someone breaks a leg, no trespassers please, etc. etc...

Anyway, couple of pictures:

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Some of the floors on the ground floor had been taken up to reveal a network of service tunnels beneath, a lot of which were tall enough to stand up in:
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There's a full set of photos on Flickr here.

And if you want to have a gander at the article, it's here (with some video, too!)

Cheers for looking guys.
 

Exploring with Andy

Behind Closed Doors
Staff member
Moderator
Some awesome pics there. Nice to get opportunities like that, and the chance to get some externals along the front - which look great.
 

host

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Cracking stuff, nice to get the opportunity, did you do the morgue ?
 

Zdarlight

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Cracking stuff, nice to get the opportunity, did you do the morgue ?

Nope, no morgue :( At the outset, we didn't know exactly how much of the hospital we'd get to see/didn't want to specifically request stuff, plus they were most interested in showing us the stuff that would be impressively re-developed and we were quite limited by time... so yeah. It wasn't the perfect tour by any means, but I was quite glad to have the chance to grab some shots of some less-seen views (front externals and clock tower, etc), so no massive complaints from me!

I'd love to go back and give it another go, but I think things are really going to start moving on quickly from now. Glad I got to catch it before it goes, though!
 

kingryu

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Wow! Would love to have freedom to roam without worrying about secca.

Some amazing photos, what a site.
 

Zdarlight

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Cheers for the comments guys. Obviously I had the luxury of time and freedom from secca to take these pics. Wouldn't have happened if we hadn't been there with the permission of the developers.
Glad I could get something that was actually decent out of all that... and of good use to some of us on here ;)

Just wish I'd had the chance to get into the Maternity wards/Morgue.... next time.

(here's me hoping there'll be a next time)
 
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glub

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Tried this sight and failed, didn't get caught but we're security patrols, fences all around and apparantly guard dogs
and allot of puddles.
 

glub

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Was anyone here the past few days? My friend is convinced he saw someone look out the window see us and close it. At about 11pm
 

urbanchaser

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
I came hear a couple of years ago.. By far the best place I've ever looked around! And the strangest.. Never believed in ghosts until I came hear!! One of the photos I took seems to show a man (in uniform) standing at the end of a corridor..... Went back a week later to make sure it wasn't something just on the wall... Nope! No explanation??? But very interesting to say the least!
 

WelshMoocher

Where'd the floor go?
28DL Full Member
Lovely pics, and report. Weird to see it like this, as I was treated there in 1995, was already vastly closed, but small parts were still in service then.
 

Jack Massey

28DL Member
28DL Member
We got in undetected and lasted roughly three hours before secca found us, fab trip though, got some good shots
 
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