Next stop on our architectural tour of the local area is the magnificent Dulwich Hospital.
Modern hospitals tend to be rather unappealing places – concrete blocks and stark, white corridors that all look the same. I suppose the NHS doesn’t want us to go there that often, and to be honest we try and spend as little time in them as possible.
Fortunately for us, utilitarian design didn’t seem to be part of Victorian architect Henry Jarvis’s plan for Dulwich Hospital, which was built in 1885. Situated on East Dulwich Road, behind impressive iron railings it can look more like a school or even prison at first sight, with its grand facade and soaring turrets. And take a look at the fabulous arches and walkways linking some of the hospital wings – it’s awesome in scale.
But this wasn’t intended to be a prison – more a caring institution build on land purchased by the ‘Guardians of the Poor of the Parish of St Saviour’. When the hospital opened in 1887, it offered 723 beds for the sick. How generous of them.
As I’m finding with many buildings in the local area, it’s had a varied career over the course of its life. During the First World War it was transformed from an infirmary into the Southwark Military Hospital, when it is estimated that between 14,000 and 15,000 wounded soldiers were treated there.
And there’s more to this building than meets the eye. When Dulwich OnView went to snap some photos of the site – and marvel at its architectural details – we discovered a secret underground tunnel, linking the rear of the hospital with the other side of the railway line, which runs across the back of the site. It was probably built for a good reason, but nowadays it’s overgrown with ivy and strewn with rubbish, so it felt more like a smugglers’ tunnel.
In fact the whole place feels a bit spooky right now. The site is pretty unloved with windows boarded up in some areas and there’s clearly not been much investment in the place for a while. It’s sad to see that one of the wings of the original building has been pulled down recently. But we hear that there are great things planned for this place, with new facilities being installed. So hopefully patients will once again be able to be treated in Victorian splendour rather than in a nasty white box.
Let’s see what happens in the future.
Boy at a Window 6 will be published on 27 Dec 2011.
Images: Thanks to Ingrid B!
2 Comments
Hello Steve, The passage you found, as this went under the railway it may have been the subway that connected the Dulwich Hospital with St Francis Hospital which became part of Dulwich hospital. My grandmother suffered a brain haemorrhage, this was about 1956, and was admitted to Dulwich Hospital. Her life was saved but her sight and mobilty were badly affected. After a while she was transferred to St Francis, her bed being wheeled through the subway.
Beryl
Hi Beryl,
Thanks for your comment and for your memory of Dulwich Hospital. Yes, that does sound like the just tunnel. Well it’s still there, if a little overgrown. It’s sad to see some areas of the site in disarray, but it looks like they have plans for breathing a bit of fresh air into the place, so hopefully it’ll be back to its former glory before too long.
Yours,
Steve