Report - The Mount hospital, Bishopstoke, Hampshire - in the snow.

chrisr86 · Dec 18, 2010

This was a solo explore on an awesome snowy day. First off, a bit of history lifted off the net:

The Mount Hospital in Bishopstoke, Hampshire closed a few years back in a clamour of local annoyance following years of campaigning to keep it open. It was a popular smaller hospital which mostly focused on rehabilitation for elderly patients but had various other outpatients' departments.

The history of the site is interesting too. It started as smallish private estate with the first house built by a wealthy farmer in 1844. It was later bought by a Captain Hargreaves in the 1870s. When he died it was bought by a Mr Cotton who rebuilt it in 1893. His imposing Victorian mansion replete with impressive tower forms the heart of the site. It originally had impressive gardens too suitable for a house of its standing with an arboretum, formal gardens and a Victorian water garden. In 1927 it was sold to Hampshire County Council who converted it into a hospital reusing the original Victorian house, as well as building a range of other buildings including another impressive art deco-ish ward building.

This one will be a bit pic-heavy because the snowy conditions give lots of opportunities for photos which you normally wouldn't get

As it was a nice snowy day, let's start with some outdoors shots.

The original Victorian building. Due to weather conditions I wasn't going to risk injuring myself getting in here, especially alone, so will be returning at some point soon. Shame, because it looked the most interesting of all the buildings from what I could glimpse inside.