# Frank James Hospital, Isle of Wight - Mar 06



## Urban Mole (May 24, 2008)

Visted this quite some time ago, and was able to access it, but since problems have occoured with the conversion of this place, its been made 100% secure, to stop vandals etc.

A bit of info;


> The Grade II listed Frank James Memorial Hospital at East Cowes on the Isle of Wight, has been included on a list of the Top Ten Endangered Buildings in England and Wales published this week by the Victorian Society, the national charity campaigning for quality architecture built between 1837 and 1914.
> The Frank James Hospital a Grade II-listed building by the noted church architects Somers Clarke and Micklethwaite, was given to East Cowes by the James family in the 1890s. It was sold to a developer after the hospital closed in 2002 and has become increasingly dilapidated in recent years.
> In April 2007, Council contractors spent three weeks securing the Frank James Hospital, which has long been a target for vandals and thieves. The Council, along with local campaigners, are now pressing for the developers to take action to ensure that this nationally significant building is not lost for good.



This is what it used to look like in its hay day;






Location;


 



Its currently boarded up and unused, but is being converted to apartments unfortunatly, as its an amazing old building.

These pics are from the back of the building where it backs onto the field.



 



Here they are doing some building work, notice the doorway in the grey wall, theres scaffolding around this part too 





There is high fencing around the whole site, but only a short gate.
These pics are from the front of the building;



 

 



Sorry about the imageshat pics.
And I didnt take many internal shots as there wasnt much of the original place left inside.
Half the hospital has been demo'd to make houses, you can see them on the right of the last above picture.





This last picture is a close up of the clock tower, and the boat that is the wind vain is Frank James's boat, he got killed elephant hunting in Africa, hence why this hospital was built by his family in rememberance.


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## mineme (May 24, 2008)

great history about the place and great ex photos


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## Silverfox (May 24, 2008)

Excellent write up, loving the sundial on the clock tower


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