Want present day pics of your old haunts? Researching your family tree and need location pics? Pictures taken to order - low cost - any job considered (not just derelicts!). Much cheaper than professional photographers

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The Croydon General Hospital building were been condemned due to its age and state of disrepair. The demolition process is

lengthy because the demolition firm aims to salvage most of the brick, timber and tiles. These will be sold to offset the cost

of the demolition. Some stone work from the existing building will be conserved and incorporated into the new development.

A £2 million ecofriendly community centre will soon be built on this site. The building is going to provide space for more than

30 community groups in north west Croydon.The crowning glory for the new building on the former Hospital site will be a "green

In 1900, Sir Henry Chester left £75,000 and Sir William Lancaster donated a site which resulted in Putney Hospital.

The hospital has been empty since 1999 Its future use has been complicated by questions over where its boundaries with

Putney Common lie and by the existence of a covenant. This states that the land, given to the people of Putney for a hospital

100 years ago, must not be used for any other purpose.Latest reports say the site has been announced as the chosen location

"Wandsworth Council is demanding urgent talks to resolve the delay, expressing concerns over the cost and time taken to get

plans off the ground.It is calling for a public meeting to discuss architects' latest proposals for the medical centre, amid claims

maintaining the empty building has cost more than £1million.John Horrocks, of the Putney Society, said the project manager for

the site, Tony Johnstone, met with the society four years ago and told it he was spending £320,000 a year on security.Mr Horrocks

said if this figure is multiplied by the six years the site has lain empty, together with architects' fees, it is easy to see how total costs

Barnes Common is said to be haunted by the spectre of a man dressed in convict’s clothing, including broad arrows, who is

said to glide around the common as if intent on committing a crime. A man described how, whilst he was crossing the common

one night, he saw the figure walk out of a pond and move noiselessly past him. He turned round only to find that the figure had

disappeared, although there was nowhere for him to have hidden. It is thought that the figure was the ghost of a convict who

had escaped from nearby Putney Hospital, where he had been undergoing treatment, and had drowned in the pond whilst

Officially closed in 1996 . A few buildings are still used for elderly mental health patients though most remains derelict

Central London District Sick Asylum was erected in 1898-1900 "in the country" at Colindale. The site cost £12,500

and the foundation stone was laid on 6th June, 1898. Its layout was based on the pavilion system with separate blocks

connected by a central linking corridor. A central administrative block contained offices, nurses' rooms, the boardroom

and chapel, with kitchens and laundry to the rear. At each side were placed two two-storey ward blocks: one for TB patients,

one for children, one for infectious children, and one for casualty cases. In 1913, the hospital was sold to the newly formed

City of Westminster Union. In 1920, it was taken over by the Metropolitan Asylums Board as a sanitorium for advanced TB

cases. In 1930, control passed to the London County Council then, in 1948, it joined the new National Health Service &

JM writes to Derelict London "I was a patient in Colindale Hospital in my teens. Originally placed in Edgeware General

but a whole lot of patients were transferred over to Colindale. i was there for six months being treated for TB. It was in the

1950's and the wards were the typical large affairs with some 30 plus beds and some side rooms or balconies. The

organisation was such that it catered for long term treatment. Depending upon level of infection/recovery some patients

awaiting redevelopment. Described as "arguably the worst general hospital psychiatric facility in the

country. The site was cramped & the monolithic workhouse became ill suited to modern medical standards."

Annie writes: "I remember working at Hackney Hospital back in 1978 as a student nurse on the geriatric unit. Back then it

was a dreadful place and it looked much as the photos do on your pages, except, of course, the place was full of patients.

The geriatric blocks were at the back and incredibly run down. My ward was at the top and had not been updated so was

exactly the same as it was when it was a workhouse. In the linen room (where I used to go just for five minutes peace)

the old victorian window panes were still in place as proved by the poignant words Jas 1898 which had been etched into

the glass 80 years earlier. To get to the geriatric blocks from the main entrance you had to walk across a wilderness of

old derelict buildings and the remains of a fire that had taken place some years before, all overgrown rubble and

blackened timbers. It was a hellhole and I'm glad they shut it down. Mind you, the staff canteen had fantastic food!"

Set up in 1845 to care for "all poor Germans and others speaking the German language." under the joint protection of

Queen Victoria, Queen Adelaide, The King of Prussia and Prince Albert. The Duke of Cambridge was elected chairman

At that time there were thought to be over 30,000 Germans living in the UK and all the medical staff and servants were

Florence Nightingale visited the hospital on two occasions and was inspired by the nurses’ example to enrol for

When it opened, the hospital had just 12 beds, but later expanded to include four wards and a sanatorium for patients

"not belonging to the lower classes". The hospital was strongly supported by the local community, until the outbreak

The hospital survived, but in World War Two all the staff were moved to an internment camp on the Isle of Man.

The inspiration for BBC1's Eastenders Albert Square was in Fassett Square a quiet Victorian square positioned

"This is the hospital where my great great grandfather died! His name was Davis Levy. He was a Jewish Lithuanian, I presume

the German's must have liked the Jews at that stage! He never spoke English so I assume that is why he ended up in a German

speaking hospital. He died of some terrible skin infection at the age of 70 in 1908. He was a master furrier and had built up a good

business in London. It is quite amazing to see the photos as I live in Ireland and God knows if I will ever get an opportunity to visit."

Despite confrontations with security guards I managed to get pics just before demolition....... (Feb 2004)

"The crumbling South London Women's Hospital will finally be demolished Feb/March 2004 by supermarket giant Tesco.

The vacant hospital site in Clapham South has been the subject of bitter legal wrangling after Wandsworth Council brought

It objected to former Secretary of State Stephen Byers's decision to overrule his inspector and grant planning permission,

car parking spaces. It said Lambeth Council and Mr Byers had ignored planning regulations protecting town centres.

"We're delighted to start demolition in February" said a Tesco spokeswoman in the Streatham Post on 24/1/04

Derek Dow writes to Derelict London: "I'm currently writing an article for my monthly medical history column in New Zealand Doctor

on one of the hospital's founders, Dr Eleanor Davies-Colley. She was the first female fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England

(1911), a fact commemorated a couple of years ago when the college began raising 1/4million for a Davies-Colley lecture room

In January 1934 my sister Joan was born there. Mother had all her children at home except for this last child. It had been discovered that

mother had an abdominal tumour, so she had to have a caesarian section - dangerous in those days. The baby was very tiny and they

had no incubators so the nurse placed the baby in one of those wire soap dishes that spread from side to side of a bath. The bath was

kept filled with hot water to produce steam and that was the baby's crib for several days. I think this was to maintain her body heat. Mother

then had to undergo a second abdominal operation to deal with the tumour. In line with the rules at that time this tiny baby was not allowed

to stay in the hospital as my mother was no longer a patient in the obstetrical department, so she was sent home to be looked after by

whoever was handy. Luckily my cousin Eva Carey-Hammond was able to stay with us and took good care of her.

Whilst Mother was recovering from the second operation the hospital had some kind of fund raising drive, and produced a little booklet to

hand out. Mother was a fine knitter and had made herself a pretty bedjacket and her photograph was on the front of the booklet, showing

her sitting up in bed wearing the bedjacket. I wish I could find a copy of the booklet now as it was one of the few photographs taken of my

Later that year or early in the next year I developed rheumatic fever and was sent to the same hospital. They did not seem to have a bed

in a children's ward for me and I was put in with the grownups. A long ward with at least ten beds on each side. I hated being there. For

one thing they made me stay in a crib with bars which I found an affront. This was probably to make me stay in bed as total bed rest

was part of the treatment. In addition they had strange ways of dealing with diseases in those days. The doctor taking care of me

thought that diet would be a good cure and I was fed three things ONLY - boiled chicken, boiled fish and boiled potatoes - and I do

mean nothing else - three times a day. Since I am a vegetarian I literally lived on boiled potatoes with the occasional mouthful of fish

out of desperation when I got hungry enough. Sometimes one of the other patients would sneak me a slice of bread when the nurses

were not lookiing, but they got into trouble when caught. Another part of the treatment was an injection of some kind of new drug which

was extremely painful. I remember that these two injections were given by a Dr. Pritchard and I always referred to her as Dr. Prickhard

The doctor told me that as I was growing up I should not try to remember unimportant things as these could be written down for later

reference, but I should concentrate on remembering only important things. Otherwise I would use up my brain!! That was almost

seventy years ago and I remember this quite clearly. I guess I thought it was an "important thing". I was not allowed visitors as in those

days this was thought to upset children. Visiting hours for the grownups were on Sunday afternoons for two hours and again in the

evening, plus either Wednesday or Thursday afternoon for a couple of hours. Everyone on the ward had visitors except me which was

The grownup patients on the ward were well aware that I was near to starving and fretting away and apparently put their heads together

to decide what to do. One of these ladies got me to whisper my address to her husband when he visited and the nurse was not looking.

He then went to visit my mother and told her what was going on. He also gave mother his wife's name and said she could use it. In

those days one had to give a clerk, sitting at the entrance to the hospital, the name of the person a visitor was going to see, so this

patient's name was needed to get on to the ward. Mother was herself unwell at that time and Dad was at work so she sent my two older

brothers Ern and Ted to the hospital to check things out for her and they made their plans. Using the other patient's name, they were

able to get on the ward, pretending to be her sons. When the nurses tried to stop them from speaking to me they took no notice and

grabbing the crib ran with it down the hall trying to get me to the front door where they had a friend waiting to help - they were going to

steal me. Some men working for the hospital stopped them doing this and there was quite a scene. The next day my parents came to

the hospital and discharged me against medical advice. Once I was at home the family doctor was appalled at my condition. I had

been in hospital for several weeks and the enemas combined with the lack of food resulted in my being very weak and as thin as a

rake. He called regularly and I was nursed through this illness at home and soon put on weight and got better. It was during this time

at home that my Dad taught me to play cribbage, and when I was able to return to school I found I was really good at mental arithmetic

Another thing I remember about the grown up patients is that a couple of them were anaemic and were also treated with a diet. They

were required to eat slices of raw beef liver once or twice a day and were refused other food unless they complied. I remember that

one of them put on a blindfold and pinched her nose so that she could not see or smell the liver and could pretend it was something

I make this place sound awful I suppose, but these people were doing the best they could in the light of their knowledge at that time."

In 1893, a new building fund began, this allowed the Hackney Road site to be expanded and new ward accommodation

to be added. 1942, amalgamated with the Princess Elizabeth of York Hospital for Children, Shadwell to become The

1948, the hospital became part of the newly created NHS. 1996, the hospital became part of The Royal Hospitals Trust,

1998, the services of the hospital were relocated to The Royal London Hospital, where they retain their historical identity

through their current name, The Queen Elizabeth Children's Service a title granted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.

The hospital had one of the country's most important pathological laboratories for the investigation of child diseases

This was one of the earliest pavilion-block workhouse designs built in England - built in 1871-2 it was designed

to house 820 inmates. In 1896, future star of the silent screen Charles Chaplin (then aged seven) briefly became

inmates of the Lambeth workhouse, together with his mother and his younger brother. In 1922, the workhouse

and infirmary were amalgamated and renamed Lambeth Hospital. In 1930 its administration was taken over by

the London County Council. Hospital shut about 1976. The infirmary and most of the workhouse have now been

The Children's Hospital Hampstead was founded in 1875 as a voluntary institution, situated in Maida Vale,

moved to College Crescent, Hampstead in 1904.At the outbreak of World War Two the hospital was requisitioned

by the War Office. Throughout the war years various plans were proposed for its future use, including a merger

with the Hampstead General, but these never materialised. The hospital joined the Royal Free Group when the

NHS came into being in 1948, and the building was used firstly as the School of Nursing Preliminary Training

School (PTS) and then as a nurses' home from then until its sale in 1990. The trust, which closed the dilapidated

College Crescent building because it did not meet fire standards, says it already has too many single rooms and

The 1962 Hospital Plan for England and Wales proposed that St. Alfege's Hospital, Greenwich should be redeveloped

In May 1963, the Minister of Health gave a press conference at which details of the new Greenwich District hospital were

The construction methods would be revolutionary - all lateral engineering services were to be contained in a 6-foot gap

between floor and ceiling of each pair of floors so that repairs and maintenance works could be carried out without

disturbing ward or department routine. All wards would have natural light but the service departments e.g. x-ray,

pathology and operating theatres would be in the centre and artificially lit.The whole hospital was to be ventilated

mechanically and none of the windows would open so that the air in the wards would be as ‘pure’ as possible.

The hospital was closed down in 2001. Scenes from the film "About a Boy" starring Hugh Grant were filmed at the

Named after its founder,who was one of the first women to qualify in medicine. The hospital started in 1866 as a dispensary and the present building dates from 1889.The foundation stone for the Hospital's new building was laid by the Princess of Wales in 1889. Closed down recently and will be replaced by a £442million new hospital being built down the road." Our new hospital will do away with the Dickensian way of working, replacing our scattered, out of date

buildings with a single, state-of-the-art complex.

Built in 1865. Before the creation of the modern Welfare State, individuals or families who were unable to support themselves

had to turn to their local Board of Guardians, for help many people seeking poor relief were forced to live in their local Workhouse

After the abolition of the Board of Guardians in 1930, the workhouse (now called the Queen's Road Homes) was taken over by the

County Borough of Croydon. It continued to perform the same functions as the workhouse, though with a growing emphasis on

the care of the elderly. During the Second World War it was reclassified as a Class 2 Hospital under the Emergency Hospital

Scheme, and was severely damaged by bombing in April 1941. It was taken over by the National Health Service in 1948, when

The buildings have all been demolished apart from the 50ft listed tower (entrance block) to make way for new homes. I found

The Middlesex Hospital's history goes back 250 years. The Middlesex Infirmary opened in 1745 with 18 beds to

provide medical treatment for the poor. Funding came from subscriptions and in 1747, the hospital became the first

in England to add 'lying-in' (inpatient) beds.The foundation stone on the present site was laid in 1755 and in 1757,

The Middlesex Hospital opened on its current site. Over the years, extra wings were added but in 1924, it was

decided that the building was about to collapse and something had to be done. Huge efforts were put into a "The

Middlesex is falling down" campaign to raise the necessary million pounds plus to rebuild the hospital. Finally,

without ever having closed its doors, the new Middlesex was opened in 1935 and eventually closed in December 2005

The Level Crossing Centre - this up until recently was a drop in centre for adults with mental illness. Debbie writes: "The building

was grim inside (although quite ok looking from the outside) and was going to cost a fortune to refurbish it so it was closed and