HISTORY
The Q.E.2 hospital was opened by the queen in July 1963, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital replaced the former Welwyn Garden City Cottage hospital which was in Church Road.
The site of the old QE2 hospital closed in 2014, with key services relocated to Lister Hospital in Stevenage.
There isn’t a single brick that remains from the old building following its demolition and was subsequently built on by housing developers, Bellway in 2017.
As of July last year all of the apartments have sold and it was announced a further 41 apartments will be built on the former MRI centre.
The New QE2 hospital called “The QE3 Hospital” cost £30m and was officially opened by Alistair Burt, then the Minister for community and social care and Simon Stevens, the Chief Executive of NHS England on November 6th 2015.
The hospital was located on Howlands and was managed by East and North Hertfordshire NHS.
THE EXPLORE
I went with a few mates one Sunday October 2016 (I think), the whole premises were fenced off but only by builders fences and so was easy to get though. There were security onsite, but they were easy to avoid, once you were inside the buildings you were fine. The building was riddled with asbestos but luckily we were all wearing good quality masks so we should’ve been ok.
Getting up on the roof was special, you could see the whole of Welwyn and Hatfield, had to be careful though because you could see security and also there was another small building nearby, I’m not sure what is was but there were people in there and obviously I didn’t want to be seen.
The site was massive, we spent a good 2 hours walking up and down the empty dark corridors going into wards and operating rooms, it was brilliant. It was the biggest exploration I’ve done and I got such a buzz, it was immense.
It was very eerie and very creepy, even though we went in the middle of the day, it felt odd exploring the place that I’ve been to so many times when it was a working hospital to see family members who were ill.
The Q.E.2 hospital was opened by the queen in July 1963, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital replaced the former Welwyn Garden City Cottage hospital which was in Church Road.
The site of the old QE2 hospital closed in 2014, with key services relocated to Lister Hospital in Stevenage.
There isn’t a single brick that remains from the old building following its demolition and was subsequently built on by housing developers, Bellway in 2017.
As of July last year all of the apartments have sold and it was announced a further 41 apartments will be built on the former MRI centre.
The New QE2 hospital called “The QE3 Hospital” cost £30m and was officially opened by Alistair Burt, then the Minister for community and social care and Simon Stevens, the Chief Executive of NHS England on November 6th 2015.
The hospital was located on Howlands and was managed by East and North Hertfordshire NHS.
THE EXPLORE
I went with a few mates one Sunday October 2016 (I think), the whole premises were fenced off but only by builders fences and so was easy to get though. There were security onsite, but they were easy to avoid, once you were inside the buildings you were fine. The building was riddled with asbestos but luckily we were all wearing good quality masks so we should’ve been ok.
Getting up on the roof was special, you could see the whole of Welwyn and Hatfield, had to be careful though because you could see security and also there was another small building nearby, I’m not sure what is was but there were people in there and obviously I didn’t want to be seen.
The site was massive, we spent a good 2 hours walking up and down the empty dark corridors going into wards and operating rooms, it was brilliant. It was the biggest exploration I’ve done and I got such a buzz, it was immense.
It was very eerie and very creepy, even though we went in the middle of the day, it felt odd exploring the place that I’ve been to so many times when it was a working hospital to see family members who were ill.
