# Standish Hospital, Stonehouse October 2019



## mookster (Dec 10, 2019)

Standish Hospital has been around the exploring scene in the UK for years, however almost all the buildings were full of alarms until very recently, which meant any visit had in the past was always a matter of restricting yourself to the few non-alarmed buildings at the rear of the site, and if you were feeling brave, a mad dash into one of the alarmed buildings to see how long you'd last before you got removed by security who were based inside one of the buildings in the middle of the site.

I paid my first two visits to this hospital back in the summer of 2012, back then it was watched over by a guard who didn't mind you wandering around as long as you promised to not go inside any of them - of course we did, but only the ones we knew weren't gonna get us turfed out! Back then the only parts you could do safely were the nurses accommodation block and attached small buildings and the mortuary/chapel of rest. However things change, and at some point the alarms had been switched off, and so recently I have gone back another two times to see as much of it as I can - there are still two buildings that have eluded me, for now, but I am happy with what I have come away with.

The hospital began life as a large manor house in private hands, however by the outbreak of the First World War it was vacant and then in 1915 was opened as a Red Cross hospital for wounded soldiers. After the war ended, the local council purchased the property and reopened it as a TB Sanatorium which, after refurbishment, opened in 1922. In 1939 a new dedicated male block was opened followed in 1947 by a new female & children block. In 1948 it became part of the newly formed NHS and with cases of TB in decline, was reformed as a specialist Orthopedic, Rheumatic and Respiratory hospital. In 1972 a hydrotherapy pool was constructed, and in 1974 new operating theatres were opened. The first plans to close the hospital came about in 1992, however the whole site hung on until 2004 when all services were transferred elsewhere.

Redevelopment began almost immediately after my second visit at the end of October, on leaving we noticed a handful of excavators gathered behind the manor house and within a week there was a whole load of equipment on site as well as a large amount of workers - as of now there is asbestos removal going on around the manor house area, and a whole load of undergrowth and trees have been cleared around the site. Work is continuing at a pace with workers all over the place, thankfully the redevelopment plans that were passed in 2017 included saving the manor house, the two original TB buildings and the brutalist 1970s hydrotherapy building.

I took most of my photos in the 1947 TB building, it's a gorgeous example of Modernist architecture and the decay in there is amazing thanks to it being full of alarms for so long.






















































































































































































Thanks for looking ​


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## KPUrban_ (Dec 10, 2019)

That's a report and a half there! Nice.
Managed quite a lot more than i thought was there, that morgue looks interesting. Albeit the alarms haven't technically been turned off, they're water damaged a i spent a good few minuets trying to set it off.


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## mookster (Dec 10, 2019)

KPUrban_ said:


> That's a report and a half there! Nice.
> Managed quite a lot more than i thought was there, that morgue looks interesting. Albeit the alarms haven't technically been turned off, they're water damaged a i spent a good few minuets trying to set it off.



Mortuary photo was just a handheld snap through the gaping hole in the door as it was a building I had already photographed back in 2012, just the fridges left, no slab sadly - would have been a lovely porcelain one too.

2012 photos:


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## BikinGlynn (Dec 11, 2019)

Nice, must of just missed u there in Oct lol.
Did u do the children's ward too? I particularly liked that with its vibrant, somewhat American feeling tiles!


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## mookster (Dec 12, 2019)

BikinGlynn said:


> Nice, must of just missed u there in Oct lol.
> Did u do the children's ward too? I particularly liked that with its vibrant, somewhat American feeling tiles!



I was under the impression that the childrens block was the Modernist 1947 TB pavilion, the older one up the north end of the site was the male pavilion. That was one of the only buildings I didn't get into over my two visits but I'm tempted to pop back up there over Christmas.


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## Dirus_Strictus (Dec 13, 2019)

Nice set of images. Just after the end of WW2, nearly every town in the UK had some form of TB 'hospital' and associated X-ray clinic - usually set on the edge of open countryside. Back then the the only treatment for TB was to have your bed wheeled out onto the ward's open veranda, and one was left to cough the contents of your lungs out in the sunshine, all over one's chest. As a 10 year old in 1953 I had a positive reaction to the 'Jelly Test' - two blobs of a reactive jelly were placed between your shoulder blades and if the jelly caused a skin reaction, your were infected with TB. Fortunately I was one of the few persons who were immune to the TB infection and always gave a false positive. It was only the application of the wartime invention of Antibiotics that stopped this dreaded illness. Sadly; due to the misuse of antibiotics, TB has become immune to many of the common and cheap antibiotics - very sad for the 3rd world countries and a worrying situation for the developed world. The fact that spitting in the street was made a finable occurrence, was due to TB virus being carried in the Sputum and thus a health risk was formed.


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## KPUrban_ (Dec 14, 2019)

Dirus_Strictus said:


> Nice set of images. Just after the end of WW2, nearly every town in the UK had some form of TB 'hospital' and associated X-ray clinic - usually set on the edge of open countryside. Back then the the only treatment for TB was to have your bed wheeled out onto the ward's open veranda, and one was left to cough the contents of your lungs out in the sunshine, all over one's chest. As a 10 year old in 1953 I had a positive reaction to the 'Jelly Test' - two blobs of a reactive jelly were placed between your shoulder blades and if the jelly caused a skin reaction, your were infected with TB. Fortunately I was one of the few persons who were immune to the TB infection and always gave a false positive. It was only the application of the wartime invention of Antibiotics that stopped this dreaded illness. Sadly; due to the misuse of antibiotics, TB has become immune to many of the common and cheap antibiotics - very sad for the 3rd world countries and a worrying situation for the developed world. The fact that spitting in the street was made a finable occurrence, was due to TB virus being carried in the Sputum and thus a health risk was formed.



Love a good bit of random and slightly obscure history. Brings a lot of detail to a place.


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## Dirus_Strictus (Dec 15, 2019)

Thanks KP, always try and add a bit of factual history to a well photographed report. The problem was so worrying for the relatively new Health Service, that X-ray clinics were opened up in vacant houses in many towns and the cream coloured articulated mobile units toured the outlying villages. In my home town of Doncaster the clinic was in Christ Church Road, on the lefthand side as one approached the junction with Nether Hall Road (for any Members living in Donny)


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