Ever since I saw the first report of the abandoned hospital I have dying to visit. It is rare these days that you find a site this large that is almost completely unknown to vandals and could even be considered open if you looked in some parts.
Although this site has been done multiple times, more people are discovering new features it has to offer which makes it so interesting.
North Staffordshire Hospital
The North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary’s history can be traced back to1804 when it was just a Dispensary and House of Recovery based in Etruria. In 1819 after outgrowing its original location the hospital moved to a new site located close to Etruria Hall, an area that was densely populated with Shelton Bar, Wedgwood, Etruria Gas Works and various collieries. It was actually all of this surrounding industry that forced the infirmary to relocate once again in 1869 to nearby Hartshill, where it could be up and away from the heavily polluted area of the original buildings. The relocation actually took over 20 years due to constant conflict between the Six Towns as to where it should be sited. This was of course in the days before the towns merged to form the City of Stoke on Trent.
More recently the Royal Infirmary was merged with the nearby Orthopaedic Hospital and City General Hospital to form the University Hospital of North Staffordshire. In 2003 it was determined that under a £350,000,000 PFI development the hospitals would be rebuilt and relocated onto the City General site. Eventually in 2012 after several years of construction, the Royal Infirmary site was finally closed when all services had been relocated.
This picture shows the building in it's 1869 state at Hartshill. These are the original buildings that were later added to make the site the size it is today.
Upon arriving at the site, we followed the specific route we had been told would lead us in. Although this entrance had been available very recently, it had since been boarded up, even in it's hidden spot, which shows the site's owners are on the ball. My friends also got talked to by the security guard on shift as they waited for me to check out this access point at a bus stop.
With no luck, we returned to another route we had been told to follow and lckily, this one worked out, after numerous cuts and bruises, we were in.
Instantly, we were entering an operating theatre which told us that we were in the oldest infirmary section of the building, constructed in 1869.
There were numerous operating theatres, most of them in this section, but some on the complete opposite side, in the most modern building, the A&E department.
In addition, some of them still had power and turned on.
Next, we headed for the old entrance hall and the chapel, both close to each other. The chapel seemed to have been hastily blocked up with chairs and a desk but after removing the blockage, it was well worth it. All the seats, altar and organ was left behind, even an old hymn book sat on top of the piano.
The chapel even had stained glass windows that were visible through the maternity ward beside it, which is the reason we knew it was here. It was noticeable that the hospital had tried to make it as much like a real church as possible, with the architecture, to allow visitors to feel away from a hospital and into their local service. It would have dealt with baptisms and funerals.
On the opposite site of the quad was the entrance hall. In pictures we have seen the lights to work and spent a good ten minutes looking for the switches but we were unable to find them. Still it was very nice to see, with the fake foliage at the sides of the door, labelled 'hospital entrance'.
I think my favourite part of the entire explore was the corridors linking the separate buildings to one another. The way they twist and turn around the hills they were built on offers some great photo moments.
Leading from these corridors we found the underground kitchens. In our video, you can see massive machinery left behind, like a full tray cleaner. This picture was taken with a decaying skylight above as I believe it was made out of plastic, hence the nice lighting coming from it.
These kitchens would have delivered food around the entire hospital's patients and staff.
It had gotten very dark by the time we had reached the modern building, so it was difficult to film and take pictures with my camera. Anyway, there wasn't much in there that interested us anyway, just lots of stripped wards. We did spend a good amount of time looking for the remaining A&E operating theatres but we couldn't find them. Therefore we left the site, happy with what we had explored but wondering whether a return visit was necessary... which I think now it is.
Be sure to check out our documentary of this hospital here:
Also, I'd love some feedback on my photos in this one as I'm not too sure about some. Any tips would be very helpful
Thanks for reading
Although this site has been done multiple times, more people are discovering new features it has to offer which makes it so interesting.
North Staffordshire Hospital
The North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary’s history can be traced back to1804 when it was just a Dispensary and House of Recovery based in Etruria. In 1819 after outgrowing its original location the hospital moved to a new site located close to Etruria Hall, an area that was densely populated with Shelton Bar, Wedgwood, Etruria Gas Works and various collieries. It was actually all of this surrounding industry that forced the infirmary to relocate once again in 1869 to nearby Hartshill, where it could be up and away from the heavily polluted area of the original buildings. The relocation actually took over 20 years due to constant conflict between the Six Towns as to where it should be sited. This was of course in the days before the towns merged to form the City of Stoke on Trent.
More recently the Royal Infirmary was merged with the nearby Orthopaedic Hospital and City General Hospital to form the University Hospital of North Staffordshire. In 2003 it was determined that under a £350,000,000 PFI development the hospitals would be rebuilt and relocated onto the City General site. Eventually in 2012 after several years of construction, the Royal Infirmary site was finally closed when all services had been relocated.
This picture shows the building in it's 1869 state at Hartshill. These are the original buildings that were later added to make the site the size it is today.
Upon arriving at the site, we followed the specific route we had been told would lead us in. Although this entrance had been available very recently, it had since been boarded up, even in it's hidden spot, which shows the site's owners are on the ball. My friends also got talked to by the security guard on shift as they waited for me to check out this access point at a bus stop.
With no luck, we returned to another route we had been told to follow and lckily, this one worked out, after numerous cuts and bruises, we were in.
Instantly, we were entering an operating theatre which told us that we were in the oldest infirmary section of the building, constructed in 1869.
There were numerous operating theatres, most of them in this section, but some on the complete opposite side, in the most modern building, the A&E department.
In addition, some of them still had power and turned on.
Next, we headed for the old entrance hall and the chapel, both close to each other. The chapel seemed to have been hastily blocked up with chairs and a desk but after removing the blockage, it was well worth it. All the seats, altar and organ was left behind, even an old hymn book sat on top of the piano.
The chapel even had stained glass windows that were visible through the maternity ward beside it, which is the reason we knew it was here. It was noticeable that the hospital had tried to make it as much like a real church as possible, with the architecture, to allow visitors to feel away from a hospital and into their local service. It would have dealt with baptisms and funerals.
On the opposite site of the quad was the entrance hall. In pictures we have seen the lights to work and spent a good ten minutes looking for the switches but we were unable to find them. Still it was very nice to see, with the fake foliage at the sides of the door, labelled 'hospital entrance'.
I think my favourite part of the entire explore was the corridors linking the separate buildings to one another. The way they twist and turn around the hills they were built on offers some great photo moments.
Leading from these corridors we found the underground kitchens. In our video, you can see massive machinery left behind, like a full tray cleaner. This picture was taken with a decaying skylight above as I believe it was made out of plastic, hence the nice lighting coming from it.
These kitchens would have delivered food around the entire hospital's patients and staff.
It had gotten very dark by the time we had reached the modern building, so it was difficult to film and take pictures with my camera. Anyway, there wasn't much in there that interested us anyway, just lots of stripped wards. We did spend a good amount of time looking for the remaining A&E operating theatres but we couldn't find them. Therefore we left the site, happy with what we had explored but wondering whether a return visit was necessary... which I think now it is.
Be sure to check out our documentary of this hospital here:
Also, I'd love some feedback on my photos in this one as I'm not too sure about some. Any tips would be very helpful
Thanks for reading
