Wolverhampton hospital opened in 1849, thanks to some local businessmen who decided that the town needed a hospital. Over the years it expanded, with new wings and operating facilities being built. It finally closed in 1997 when a new out-of-town hospital was built. Ten years later the buildings sit rotting away in Wolverhampton’s city centre, suffering at the hands of vandals, vagrants and arsonists. Tesco apparently own the site, and work has begun on some regeneration in the area…
If you’re interested in reading more about the hospital then this website has a far more detailed history.
External shots
The buildings are rather impressive. Most are to be demolished.
Being a hospital, it has relatively standard features…
Corridors
The intricate network of corridors (and staircases)
Accident & Emergency
An accident & emergency unit. Totally stripped out.
Operating Theatres
Operating theatres – these ones were added to the hospital during the 1960s. Again, they’re totally stripped out.
Wards
It’s a hospital. Yes, it has wards. They’re totally stripped out (see the theme?)
Maxillofacial Laboratory
We decided to make our way up to the roof for the view. Curiously there was a small, unassuming building on the roof – the Maxillofacial Laboratory.
Hmm, what do they in this laboratory? Based on bits left around, such as teeth and ears moulds, it was for faces. According to Wikipedia, Maxillofacial Surgery is surgery to correct a wide spectrum of diseases, injuries and defects in the head, neck, face, jaws and the hard and soft tissues of the oral and maxillofacial region.
Pharmacy
Oh, back to standard stuff. A pharmacy, for all of the medicines. Guess what – it’s stripped out.
X-Ray machine
If you’ve seen photos of this hospital before, you’ve probably seen people posing in some macabre-looking X-ray machine. If not, here’s a macabre looking X-ray machine. Without posing…
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love this place shame they have let it go like this to be honist i have many hours here in a/e
we have a building in bilston old collage by the police station thats gone to wasite just sitting there boarded up even old pubs too
fab photos well done love to see more but it as been well boarded up as im a wheelchair user i do love to see these
cazwix
Fantastic site, love looking at all these photos of old derelict sites. Keep up the great work !
im working on the demolition on here and to b honest just to look at the placks on the walls and things lyk that u can tell that it has a lot of history same most of it has been nocked down
Creepy..
very spooky especialy the x ray machine
I also Like Kath Worked Main Kitchen For 13yrs, The Royal Was A Little Family We All Enjoyed Our Work We Were A Close Nit Unit Oh I Wish I Could Turn Back The Clock But Never To Be Again . Ive Just Loooked At The Pictures Of Inside And My Heart Sank , Hope The Can Revive The Old Place
my aunt was a sister at this hospital then transfering to new cross after the closure sadly she passed away last year my brother was also a patient at this hospital. lets hope when they finaly restore it it looks as good as it did those many years ago.
i was a cadet nurse from 1970 -1972 ( sue heath) then trained at rhw from 72-73 IN THE GOOD DAYS OF NURSING ! when respect was in abundance . I am now STILL nursing , and am a sister @ new x breaks ya heart to see these pictures . so so many memories
correction * trained 1972 -1975
Ex worker there used to work in a&e (porter)best days of my life. I was born and raised around the corner rogers chip shop great memories so sad to see the area now
What a shock to see the derelict building.I trained at the Royal, 1957-1960, then stayed for a year. I started working in Fracture room in 1956, as I was too young to start SRN training. I now live in Canada. But having watched the short movie ” Together We Cared” and now this web site, the change is a shock.But I am very proud to say I did my training at the Royal. It was a great place to work and live. It was like a family as everyone knew everyone. Though I don’t know Newcross Hospital, I’m sure it couldn’t have been, or be now, as great a place as was the Royal. My training days were some of the best years of my life. I lived in Codsall,so lived “in” for several months, then moved to a flat. Does anyone remember Sister Dora Martin? Or Matron Ritchie.Mr Benison, Mr Vincent Patrick,Mr or Mrs Dalton, all surgeons. Is anyone around who still remembers the “old” days of the Royal?
I did my basic dental technology training in the Maxillofacial Laboratory from 1980 to 1985, hot as hell in summer (especially with the furnace on) and as cold as a freezer on winter mornings but many happy memories of the place, shame to see it like this.
Nice shots!
The stripe of light is a slow-exposure torch run down the centre of the pic. Look below the stripe and you can just see the photographers feet as he walks along with the light…nothing spooky.
Am trying to get in touch with a Nurse Lorraine Piper who worked at the Royal in 1970. She was wonderful to my son David Mather Smith who had an operation at the Royal and Nurse Piper was his favourite. She did try to find us after David left but did not have time as she was due in Nottingham that day. Any help would be appreciated.
I used to mess around wif my m8s in this hospital a few years back great times. We went down the old maintenance tunnel (not shown in the photos) that was scary! the hospital is being demolished now its just the front thats gona look the same history has definately being lost through redevelopment.
I stopped in the Royal Hospital in the summer of 1976 when I was a little girl, it was a very hot summer that year, but when you’re a kid you don’t feel the heat like adults do. I loved my time there, even though I was very sick to begin with, over the weeks I remember getting better and better, I remember the nurses who nursed me back to health, they were wonderful. I remember being naughty and playing up with all of the other kids and being told off for being too noisy. I remember the music on the radio and every time I hear those songs now, it takes me right back to 1976 and The Royal. When I look at that old hospital now I have the happiest of memories, after all it saved my life and the life of many others, it is a shame to see it go.
hello, i am just wondering if its still possible to get into the royal hospital? i am hoping to get some photos for my art work at uni? if anyone can help me my email is loveandbones@hotmail.co.uk thank you xxx
Such happy times we had there, & such hard work! I trained there 1956-1959 & then worked on Harper Millar as staff nurse till 1963,when my son was born. My husband Eddie was a patient & I met him literally in theatre one!! I do remember you Anne Faulkner, I’m sure I worked with you at sometime. It was a wonderful place to ‘belong’ to.We worked hard but we were as you say like a big family pulling together & supporting each other. I remember Miss Ritchie who was so strict but fair & wern’t we amazed when she got married suddenly!? I remember too Dora Martin, who could forget her, who worked for her- she told me it was nurses like me who would cause the health service to fail! ( I got another roll of plaster out before we finished one!) And who could forgot our larger than life( or so it seemed) surgeons! Mr Heath, Benison, Hutchinson,& Mr Freeman (oh, how he used to swear at us in theatre didn’t he!!) And Dr Sheldon who was such a gentleman even to the most junior of nurses. I worked for many years for Mr Hughes & Mr Clarke who were lovely, but every year they went to the Wales versus Scotland rugby match together, & every year came back not speaking because one of them had lost! Will used to put the fear of God into me, but we are good friends now & correspond every Christmas. My chief memory of Mr Patrick was that when he did a round we all had to stay out of sight in the sluice & the patients couldn’t have any newspapers on the bed till he’d gone! Reading your remarks has revived so many happy memories for me. you are right, they were very, very happy times. ( just remembering too, the porters who were like fathers to us, George, Mr Gilbert & wasn’t it Len who worked in plaster room also Lawson who used to take all the children down for tonsillectomy, all on one trolley singing all the way down through the corridors & underground tunnels to the ENT theatre) Then there was Sister Jones who used to try to mother & fuss us & Sister Alsop too. Its amazing that one place had so many memorable people there at one time & I am very proud to have been a Royal trained nurse from that era. If you see this Anne best wishes & thanks
i was a patient at the Royal Hospital in 1952 in Darthmouth ward where sister Martin was in charge. A few years later i visited the hospital on a days outing from school and would you believe sister Martin remembered me. I now live in Canada but still remember my stay in hospital as the staff were so kind.
i was a patient at the Royal Hospital in 1952 in Darthmouth ward where sister Martin was in charge. A few years later i visited the hospital on a days outing from school and would you believe sister Martin remembered me. I now live in Canada but still remember my stay in hospital as the staff were so kind.
Does anyone know if this hospital is still standing or if it has been knocked down? and who owns the land? Thanx Louise x
Some of the building is currently being pulled down to make way for a new Tesco, but the main part is being converted into flats. Tesco own the whole site.
The current state of the roysl hospital is a pretty sad and pathetic state. Work grounded to a halt some time ago, and all the tarpaulin that was put up around the old main building resembles tatty flags flapping in the wind. It is a terrible waste and a shame that it has been left half developed whilst it is still an eyesore on the landscape. The same is apparent of the old eye infrimary on the junction of Chapel ash which has been closed for a number of years now. This is a also a listed building and is being left to rot, the council don’t seem to care about old buildings which could be put to good use. they prefer to squander the tax payer’s money on useless projects.
Trained there in 1980. The best days of my life were spent working on Scott/Twentyman ward with Sr. Macari & Co. Mr. Grace, Mr. Williams, Mr.McDougall – the Consultant rounds, crisp white sheets, spick and span cleanliness and the moral was amazing. John (married Grace, a staff nurse there) and Mark, the theatre porters – what are you all doing 30 years later ?
Tesco bought the site but they won’t redevelop it until they have control of the Raglan Street area (which is owned by Sainsbury’s). The development of The Royal depends on the development of Raglan Street.
Wolverhampton City Council ruled in favour of Tesco, made a compulsory purchase order against Sainsbury’s and they’ve been battling through the courts ever since.
When it looked as if Tesco were going to win, they started work on the site and set about demolishing the ungraded parts. Then it all ground to a halt again after yet another appeal from Sainsbury’s, who are understandably miffed at being told to sell prime land to their commercial rivals.
Sainsbury’s have recently won an appeal against the council on a very obscure legal technicality and it doesn’t look as if anything will be resolved soon.
Pity. Both sites are blots on their respective neighbourhoods and someone needs to knock a few heads together.
The x-ray pictures show a siemens CRT/4 Skull unit, if anyone is interested.