Visited with NickUK and HiddenShadow
Salford Royal (formally Salford Hope) is currently undergoing a massive redevelopment program which includes the demolition of the older redbrick Victorian buildings to make way for a new visitor and patient car park. Having been fortunate enough to never get ill/run over/shot in Salford over the course of my life, I'd not had a chance to peek inside.
The Victorian buildings are completely surrounded by live working hospital buildings which made for pretty hilarious access.
We had a good mooch round but most of the good stuff has been cleared for demo, they're just waiting for the asbestos guys to finish doing their thing and then it'll all come down
If you want to see it - do it now, if not, just look at the pictures
History (from wikipedia)
The hospital opened in 1882 as the Salford Union Infirmary, a hospital for sick paupers, in association with the union workhouse. During the Manchester Blitz of WW2 the hospital was struck by German bombs in June 1941 and 14 nurses died. It was later renamed as Hope Hospital, taking the name of the medieval Hope Hall, demolished in 1956. The formation of the NHS Trust in 1994 saw the closure of Salford Royal Hospital on Chapel Street. The trust was originally named Salford Royal Hospitals NHS Trust, but changed its name to Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust in 2006.
During 2007 a substantial redevelopment commenced under a Private Finance Initiative (PFI), which included re-branding the hospital as "Salford Royal" and the construction of the Hope Building, which is scheduled to open in September 2011.
