In 2001 the RVI at newcastle celebrated 250years of medical practising from its inception in 1751.
Newcastles position in the world changed dramatically in the 18th centuary, mostly due to the booming coal industry and thus other industries associated wtih that. During this period the population of th city boomed, and a new centre for healthcare was required.
Richard Lambert, a reputed newcastle surgeon of the time wrote a letter to the newcastle Courrant insisting an infirmary for the poor to be founded.
The first operation undertaken on site was in november of that very year, planning boards and builders worked much faster back then
Over the next 100years or so, more funds were donated to the infirmary trust and it became better equipped and then expanded upon its existing 'forth banks' site, the land had been generously donated by the Newcastle Corporation.
By the end of the 19th centuary the infirmary is found inadequate for the now much larger population of newcastle, the mayor Mr Riley lord suggests a new infirmary to be built and dedicated to the Queen on her Diamond Jubilee (1896), the proposal is taken enthusistaically and work starts immediatly on drawing funds and plans togther.
Lord Armstrong donates a substantial amount of £100,000 toward the new infimary and for his troubles has a plaque made out in his name...
The armstrong plaque.
the Hyme wing plaque
the prince of wales of the time layed the foundation stone of the new royal victoria infimary on 20th June 1900, and it opens fully on september 15th 1906.
This picture shows the last wagon load of patients and gear to be taken from the Forth Road site (demo'd in 1950's) to the new infirmary.
1900 floorplan (the victorian portion of the hospital at its most complete)
1906 RVI medical research staff pose outside the front door.
this is the clearest image I could find for an overview of the site, a huge lethiathon of a hospital, sprawling in all directions with seemingly endless corridoors lined in glorius green glazed tiles to at least 6ft up the walls.
much more recently the local authority began to plan and build the new new royal victoria wing, which has now taken over many of the duties of the existing (and now mostly demo'd) old RVI seen in these pictures.
The explore itself happened spontanously after spending most of a sunny spring day rumaging around the now also mostly demo'd st marys stannington/gateshead pauper asylum we took a wrong turn on the way home thru newcastle, and thankful that we did! Despite living within spitting distance of the RVI neither of us had a CLUE they were demolishing all of this wonderful building!
I remember as a kid we used to spend a lot of time in the newcastle RVI, and despite the grim circumstance we had to visit so regulary I always enjoyed being in the hospital, entering the imposing entrance hall with its dark pannelled wood and seemingly endless coridoors literally coated in green glazed tile win, you would walk for apparently miles down these fabulously lit coridoors to get to the relative wing. the 'old' RVI had a very light and airy feeling to it, yet was well ordered and simple to navigate, a bulding of REAL character and GRACE.
Throughout the 1990's loads of new additions were added to the building in all directions, and every single one of them was aweful, a nightmare to navigate, often cold and damp feeling in comparison to the characterful and cheerful colours of the main RVI buildings.
Enough babbling, more pictures!!
taken thru a gaping hole in the roof in the direction of the admin building/front entrance, I believe they are keeping a portion of that entrance building, but that is all, EVERYTHING else is going, an almost blasphamous act.
Set X-ray developer to ON - this was in the 'upper' 1970's addition to the RVI, seen in the first photo as a horrific concrete hat sat ontop of the beautiful 1900 RVI building, a real planning horror, though not the worst thing newcastle planing department has let past thru their grubby paws.
again taken from the 1970's 'hat' like building, you can clearly see how much had gone by the time we visited the 'old RVI' a few weeks ago, that big green round thing is the new RV wing, an actual horror of a building, internally looks like it was built for 20p with errors and poor workmanship on almost EVERY surface imaginable :freak as of last week, ALL of this wing has been levelled.
one of the many stairwells
Beautiful glazed tiles! The victorians REALLY knew how to decorate a public space
on tooon, wheelbarrows are the transport of choice! certainly comfier and more cash effective than the nexus metro system
MRI epicery THIS WAY!!!!
more stairs
Doorway to destruction
A typical room upon one of the wings, light, spacious, well planned and practically industructable build quality.
Everything is glazed, everything is wipe clean and kid proof. Weird they always seem to paint over the tiles, I can't imagine gloss paint being quite as 'wipe cleanable' as victorian engineered tiles, but there you go!
Oh hai, I can haz coloured sticker infection?
Childrens wards are ALWAYS terrifying places, I've never been keen on clowns, and I think that spans from some of my early years being spent in places like this with mind stirring images of twisted well known kids cartoon figures brightly painted on all manor of surfaces, the stuff nightmares are made of :s
See no Evil, Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil - pretty much the NHS way TBH!!
Spent many an hour waiting in this room, bizzarre to see it now stripped and awaiting the grappler to tear it apart
Can you see the clowns?
Patient records & Sensitive photos much, ORLY? - I didn't shoot any of the more dodgy stuff (to shoot it then host it on the internet would make me as bad as them), but as you can imagine, the NHS did their usual 'job' of clearing up.
The route of all that is vibrant and disturbing, I really really don't like a lot of what gets painted in childrens wards.
Toon slappers on the windows, bouncers on the doors! this was upstairs in the teenage cancer unit, a very bright and vibrant place commisioned in 1999 (I believe, but don't quote me on that!). Not sure who commissioned these works, but I thought they were quite fitting with the town.
Typical night of demolition on the Toon - I'd never seen this murreal before, at first I was a bit shocked at the sight of it, but actually, its pretty funny, if you really look you can spot just about every aspect of a filthy night out on this wall, and probably spot yourself as well
continued in next post
Newcastles position in the world changed dramatically in the 18th centuary, mostly due to the booming coal industry and thus other industries associated wtih that. During this period the population of th city boomed, and a new centre for healthcare was required.
Richard Lambert, a reputed newcastle surgeon of the time wrote a letter to the newcastle Courrant insisting an infirmary for the poor to be founded.
The first operation undertaken on site was in november of that very year, planning boards and builders worked much faster back then
Over the next 100years or so, more funds were donated to the infirmary trust and it became better equipped and then expanded upon its existing 'forth banks' site, the land had been generously donated by the Newcastle Corporation.
By the end of the 19th centuary the infirmary is found inadequate for the now much larger population of newcastle, the mayor Mr Riley lord suggests a new infirmary to be built and dedicated to the Queen on her Diamond Jubilee (1896), the proposal is taken enthusistaically and work starts immediatly on drawing funds and plans togther.
Lord Armstrong donates a substantial amount of £100,000 toward the new infimary and for his troubles has a plaque made out in his name...
The armstrong plaque.
the Hyme wing plaque
the prince of wales of the time layed the foundation stone of the new royal victoria infimary on 20th June 1900, and it opens fully on september 15th 1906.
This picture shows the last wagon load of patients and gear to be taken from the Forth Road site (demo'd in 1950's) to the new infirmary.
1900 floorplan (the victorian portion of the hospital at its most complete)
1906 RVI medical research staff pose outside the front door.
this is the clearest image I could find for an overview of the site, a huge lethiathon of a hospital, sprawling in all directions with seemingly endless corridoors lined in glorius green glazed tiles to at least 6ft up the walls.
much more recently the local authority began to plan and build the new new royal victoria wing, which has now taken over many of the duties of the existing (and now mostly demo'd) old RVI seen in these pictures.
The explore itself happened spontanously after spending most of a sunny spring day rumaging around the now also mostly demo'd st marys stannington/gateshead pauper asylum we took a wrong turn on the way home thru newcastle, and thankful that we did! Despite living within spitting distance of the RVI neither of us had a CLUE they were demolishing all of this wonderful building!
I remember as a kid we used to spend a lot of time in the newcastle RVI, and despite the grim circumstance we had to visit so regulary I always enjoyed being in the hospital, entering the imposing entrance hall with its dark pannelled wood and seemingly endless coridoors literally coated in green glazed tile win, you would walk for apparently miles down these fabulously lit coridoors to get to the relative wing. the 'old' RVI had a very light and airy feeling to it, yet was well ordered and simple to navigate, a bulding of REAL character and GRACE.
Throughout the 1990's loads of new additions were added to the building in all directions, and every single one of them was aweful, a nightmare to navigate, often cold and damp feeling in comparison to the characterful and cheerful colours of the main RVI buildings.
Enough babbling, more pictures!!
taken thru a gaping hole in the roof in the direction of the admin building/front entrance, I believe they are keeping a portion of that entrance building, but that is all, EVERYTHING else is going, an almost blasphamous act.
Set X-ray developer to ON - this was in the 'upper' 1970's addition to the RVI, seen in the first photo as a horrific concrete hat sat ontop of the beautiful 1900 RVI building, a real planning horror, though not the worst thing newcastle planing department has let past thru their grubby paws.
again taken from the 1970's 'hat' like building, you can clearly see how much had gone by the time we visited the 'old RVI' a few weeks ago, that big green round thing is the new RV wing, an actual horror of a building, internally looks like it was built for 20p with errors and poor workmanship on almost EVERY surface imaginable :freak as of last week, ALL of this wing has been levelled.
one of the many stairwells
Beautiful glazed tiles! The victorians REALLY knew how to decorate a public space
on tooon, wheelbarrows are the transport of choice! certainly comfier and more cash effective than the nexus metro system
MRI epicery THIS WAY!!!!
more stairs
Doorway to destruction
A typical room upon one of the wings, light, spacious, well planned and practically industructable build quality.
Everything is glazed, everything is wipe clean and kid proof. Weird they always seem to paint over the tiles, I can't imagine gloss paint being quite as 'wipe cleanable' as victorian engineered tiles, but there you go!
Oh hai, I can haz coloured sticker infection?
Childrens wards are ALWAYS terrifying places, I've never been keen on clowns, and I think that spans from some of my early years being spent in places like this with mind stirring images of twisted well known kids cartoon figures brightly painted on all manor of surfaces, the stuff nightmares are made of :s
See no Evil, Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil - pretty much the NHS way TBH!!
Spent many an hour waiting in this room, bizzarre to see it now stripped and awaiting the grappler to tear it apart
Can you see the clowns?
Patient records & Sensitive photos much, ORLY? - I didn't shoot any of the more dodgy stuff (to shoot it then host it on the internet would make me as bad as them), but as you can imagine, the NHS did their usual 'job' of clearing up.
The route of all that is vibrant and disturbing, I really really don't like a lot of what gets painted in childrens wards.
Toon slappers on the windows, bouncers on the doors! this was upstairs in the teenage cancer unit, a very bright and vibrant place commisioned in 1999 (I believe, but don't quote me on that!). Not sure who commissioned these works, but I thought they were quite fitting with the town.
Typical night of demolition on the Toon - I'd never seen this murreal before, at first I was a bit shocked at the sight of it, but actually, its pretty funny, if you really look you can spot just about every aspect of a filthy night out on this wall, and probably spot yourself as well
continued in next post
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