CMH, Autumn 2019

[KPUrban_]

Hospital Of Bleeding Doors​

It's been a little while since I last posted a thread and will probably remain a rare occurrence, if I'm honest. But anyway, here a thread.

The Hospital​

Dating back to 1879 CMH, built by Messrs Martin Wells and Co., was named after the duke of Cambridge and opened on the 18th of July.

The hospital was extended numerous times with alterations from time to time and grew to become a vast structure.

During the First World War the hospital was the first to receive the wounded from the western front during this period the hospital became the first in the British Empire to perform plastic surgery.

Following the Second world war and the drop in military patients, as you'd expect with no wars, civilians were admitted to the hospital's wards. From then on the hospital provided services in the many wards and theatres until February 2nd 1996 where the high maintenance, Grade 2 listed, asbestos riddled building was no longer fit for purpose.

The Hospital

The Explore​

Having left later than planned and one we had picked up the third member of the group we eventually found ourselves trying to bodge a route into the hospital.

Having known about securities presence a few days prior we made a swift entry and found out we were in the maternity ward.

Some bed lamps
Baby Monitor

Very old Hanaulux lamp
Natural Light

OOOOOOOO YESSSSSSSS!
The Bleeding Doors

Yes I'm very aware I'm posing more like a teenager in a drunken party photo.
Talking to the walls

More Lamps
Maternity

Prime lens shot at f/2.2
Heidelberg

More Lamps
Big Lamp Little Lamp

Anyway, with maternity explored and little else to photo we moved to the main hospital.

Once in we found ourselves in a rather empty ward and then the hallway which we knew was alarmed.
So.
Upstairs. It's the same deal, an empty building site with nothing.
Our aim now was the clock tower.
Heading cautiously down the steps we were back in the hallway, this time looking at a sensor.
Does it work? Surely not, it should have gone off.
Standing there with little choice either to try our luck or leave we made a decision.
We look left,
then right,
and cautiously shuffled up to it.
Nothing? Ok, we walked a little further to the tower.
Errm, was that white panel already beeping? No. Is that the alarm then?
I assume s....... OH SHIT.

And with that we left

KP
,

 

[5t3tcv743]

You are a teenager. Just thought I'd point out

 

[KPUrban_]

You are a teenager. Just thought I'd point out

Yes, I know, you're also younger than me.

 

[krela]

Great photos KP

 

[KPUrban_]

Great photos KP

Thanks man!

 

[Sidsdx1988]

Lurve the bleeding doors! very 'evil within'.

 

[UrbanX]

Not seen this place for a while! Cracking shots and write up, thanks for sharing!

 

[KPUrban_]

Lurve the bleeding doors! very 'evil within'.

Definitely adds some character and life to something rather dull.

 

[KPUrban_]

Not seen this place for a while! Cracking shots and write up, thanks for sharing!

Neither had I until i had been. Thanks a lot man!

 

[NoseyGit]

Wasn't someone supposed to "blow the bleedin' doors off"?

 

[KPUrban_]

Wasn't someone supposed to "blow the bleedin' doors off"?

Took me a second to get the reference.

 

[Sabtr]

I dunno - there's something very sinister to derelict hospitals. My mind wanders but I see them as places of experimentation.. on humans. Mixed in with that dereliction you have Hanaulux lamps in perfect condition. Are those lamps the guardians experimenting on us?
(yeah perhaps I took too much medication - given to me by a lamp..)

Love the report and entertainment factor

 

[KPUrban_]

I dunno - there's something very sinister to derelict hospitals. My mind wanders but I see them as places of experimentation.. on humans. Mixed in with that dereliction you have Hanaulux lamps in perfect condition. Are those lamps the guardians experimenting on us?
(yeah perhaps I took too much medication - given to me by a lamp..)

Love the report and entertainment factor

Are you alright there? hhahah
There's some more hospitals on my Flickr if you wish to start more conspiracies.
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmJav622

 

[5t3tcv743]

Yes, I know, you're also younger than me.

Yes I am mr big flex. By a few months. I'm ×100 times more intelligent though

You know it!!

 

[lulubella]

Beautiful photos

 

[Hayman]

Is it not strange how the past comes back to bite us? Perhaps I am the only person posting here who was a patient at the CMH.

From 1959 to 1962 I was stationed at Longmoor Camp, some twenty miles south of Aldershot. I was a regular soldier in the Royal Engineers, having joined from leaving school when I was seventeen and three-quarters.

Ever since I had been a young teenager I’d had bad acne. While at Longmoor, I visited the CMH, receiving various treatments; none of which worked.

As an outpatient I was given ultra-violet light treatment – to no effect. Then I was admitted as an inpatient. One of the attempts to cure the acne was the spreading on my chest and back of a thick paste called Resorcin. It is still used in various forms today.

The only effect was to remove much of the surface layer of my skin – as if I had severe sunburn. Then the medics gave up on me.

However, Fate took over. The Army classified personnel medically as to where they were allowed/supposed to serve. The classification had two parts: tactical zones and climatic regions. The widest tactical zone was Forward – including battle areas. Before that came Line of Communication – the supply and evacuation route between a base and where the fighting was happening. And most restricted was Base – where the main stores and admin offices were.

The climatic regions included Everywhere – anywhere in the world – and Temperate – areas such as Europe.

Because of my acne, I was classified Forward Temperate – FT; the assumption being that anywhere semi-tropical or tropical would only exacerbate my spottiness. This ignored the climatic differences between, say, Burma and, say, Aden.

I will never know, but perhaps someone at RE Records, Ditchling Road, Brighton saw my medical records and thought barren Aden was just the posting I needed; FT or no FT. I too was a clerk, and part of my Clerk RE BIII trade training had comprised a week’s documentation course at Brighton.

And that person was right. I arrived in Aden on 5th November 1962, a spotty herbert walking down the steps from a Britannia 312 into the blazing dry heat of RAF Khormksar. Within weeks my skin was clearing up, helped by often working in just shorts and by sunbathing in off duty hours.

So, where the CMH failed, RE Postings succeeded.

On demob in 1964, and back in temperate UK, I discovered Fairy Liquid – advertised as making greasy pans “squeaky clean”. I reasoned it would also get rid of the grease from my - again - very greasy and oily skin. I still use washing-up detergent to wash my body with some 56 years later!

And those are memories of the CMH.