Built in 1831, Huddersfield infirmary was once the primary treatment centre for the West Yorkshire town, and endured 136 years of healthcare services. Sitting among the far less desirable modernist buildings that have risen during the past 18 decades, the original Edwardian hospital buildings became Grade II listed in 1978, therefore still remain structurally intact, albeit in a much less appreciated manner than once before, with impressive original sandstone columns identical to those on the nearby Huddersfield Railway Station. A statue of King Edward VII now overlooks a public car park, having once been the focal point of the entrance gardens that surrounded the infirmary before the expansion of the surrounding road systems throughout the 20th century. By 1929 the hospital was hosting a number of advanced facilities such as Turkish and Russian Baths, an electro-medical department and a team dedicated to treating those with Venereal Diseases.
As the town expanded both in size and population, the hospital closed in 1967, with the forming of the larger, new Royal Infirmary just down the road. In 1968 the site was purchased in its entirety by the Huddersfield Technical College who made the former infirmary their home, and began to irreversibly expand the site towards a future in education. The development of which you can see in my previous album titled ‘Kirklees College’. Throughout the many corridors and annexed buildings, layers of history can be found whereby healthcare has been replaced by educational facilities. Operating theatres turned into catering classes, dormitories became lecture halls and patient rooms into offices. Inside one of the rooms, a scale model of a replacement facility can be found, leading to the point when the adjacent college building closed its doors in 2012 after expanding to its new modern premises. The old infirmary had already been abandoned in terms of operation for several years, by which point the decay had already started to bring back much of the buildings past as the paint and flooring fell away. The result is now a strange concoction of both old and new. The last remaining evidence of life here can be found near to the entrance stairwell, where boxes of personal items still remain after presumably being made for sale to the public in an effort to raise funds for maintenance.
Left behind within the walls of the infirmary, a film set for the apocalyptic TV drama 'Extremis' staring David O'hara has never been cleaned away since being used in 2013, having had part of the old infirmary made to look like a dilapidated hospital, ironically this only further emphasised the truth. The hospital bed and equipment were never taken away by the film crew and the ‘decaying’ paint job never had to be fixed given the buildings derelict state. Though from my recollection it doesn't quite capture the accuracy of what an empty British hospital truly looks like, as in my experience the NHS never leave a dime behind for anyone. The site is currently tied once more to the college that surrounds it, as planning proposals are underway to redevelop the site. Unlike the others however, these buildings are protected to stand the test of time regardless of what comes next.
