London Temperance Hospital - LON - Nov 2009

This place looked really interesting on the outside, all very workhouse Victorian Gothic. When we did get in, oddly enough using a totally different access point than we though we might have to but still a back breaking ball ache all the same, we found that the main hospital had been pretty much totally stripped and virtually none of the original Victorian interior remained, perhaps due to the fact that the building had latterly been used as an administration facility. In fact, the only item of hospital equipment we did find was a drip stand in the basement. Still, from an architectural perspective, the two glass corridors or conservatoires were quite nice, which I remember thinking looked pretty cool when I used to go past them on the bus when I worked in the area. One links to the Insull Memorial Hospital building next door, but unfortunately access was totally blocked when we tried to get in.

I guess these pictures remain pretty unique as we seem to have been amongst a very few people who have taken the time to explore given that it pops up in the "leads" section of several urban exploration forums on a fairly regular basis. The Insull building has yet to be documented.

Info from Wikipedia.

London Temperance Hospital sits behind Euston Station in central London. It was opened in 1873 on Gower St. at the height of the Temperance movement. They wanted a hospital that would avoid use of alcohol unless absolutely essential to life. It was managed by a board of 12 teetotallers, who were rumoured to not be much fun(!). Inpatients were admitted to the new hospital free by a letter from a governor, or on payment of a fixed amount. Outpatients could be admitted with a governor's letter or pay at least a shilling a visit.

The hospital moved to it’s current site on Hampstead Road after purchasing land from St. James Church in 1879. It was opened in 1885. In 1931 the hospital expanded when Chicago magnate Samuel Insull donated $160.000 to build a new extension, the "Insull Memorial wing." In 1939 it became the National Temperance Hospital, and in 1948 it was incorporated into the newly formed NHS. It was closed in 1990, and used for various courses and admin purposes by Middlesex Hospital/UCL until Middlesex hospital began to be closed down.

External Corridor link to the Insul building

Conservatoire