LGI

Bunkers, shelters and other buildings
Sir_Zonneveld
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu 10 Apr, 2008 10:23 pm

Post by Sir_Zonneveld »

I was in L.G.I last year for six weeks and on D floor of the jubilee wing (Coronary wards) their is a rooftop garden with some brilliant views,spent Hours out there everyday hiding out from the evil doctors and the sick people on my ward

mlh24
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun 13 Apr, 2008 7:47 am

Post by mlh24 »

Hello allI've been lurking here for a while; brilliant site - spent almost a whole weekend reading through the forums and following links to some of your photos. I love all the underground tunnel stuff, and derelict buildings like Highroyds! Anyway, as I've worked at the LGI for 10 years (and counting), reading this thread has finally inspired me to register. The balconies are on Brotherton Wing. I don't know if the whole wing was private at one time, but since I've worked there, C Floor used to be the 'private patients' ward, although it isn't any more. A Floor is the home of the psychiatric ward - if ever we have to visit it the running joke in the office is that they might not let us back out!I haven't heard of the Winter Gardens myself, but Electrical Dave is right about the sunshine corridor - very warm most of the year round, especially since they nailed all the windows shut to stop the patients from the respiratory wards (yes, respiratory) going out there for a quick fag!Speaking of gardens though, there is a kind of courtyard garden in between the two main B floor corridors of the old site - I think it's commonly referred to as the Rose Garden. A popular spot for staff, patients and visitors alike - several benches dotted around and between some lovely flowerbeds.The 'rooftop' garden is actually on F Floor in Jubilee Wing, and obviously isn't the proper rooftop, cos that would be the helipad! Never actually been out there myself, but as Sir_Zonneveld says, some great views across the city! In fact, this thread has inspired me to take my camera to work and get a few snaps - no promises though!Just as a slight aside, when I was younger I always used to wonder what it would be like to walk around an empty hospital (spent quite a bit of time in them with health problems). I started working at the LGI in July 97, and a couple of months later I actually got the chance, as a small group of us from my department were taken on a guided tour of the soon-to-be-opened brand new Jubilee Wing, or 'Phase One' as it was referred to for a while. I remember seeing the rows of chairs which were to be fixed into place in the waiting area of Casualty, still in their plastic wrapping, and also walking through what was going to become one of the ICU wards. There was a rumour that we were going to be allowed up on the helipad, but in the end it was quite a windy day and the guy showing us round decided against it, unfortunately. I guess some of you on here have experienced the opposite, walking around an empty hospital at the end of it's life, rather than at the beginning...

raveydavey
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Joined: Thu 22 Mar, 2007 3:59 pm
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Post by raveydavey »

As a kid (mid 70's), I was "under" the Opthamology Department (hope I've spelt that right!) for my dodgy eye.That used to be on the ground floor of the Brotherton Wing, just through the doors opposite what is now Millenium Square.I had to go back for the first time in years a couple of years ago for my eyes looking at and found the opthamology department is now on the very far side of the Hospital which now takes about 10 minutes to walk there from those doors, up stairs, along corridors, through walkways and then more corridors and finally down some more steps - I only just made that first appointment!It's weird walking through the different parts of the LGI, from the fading splendour of the Brotherton Wing, through the "old" LGI, then into the new building then back into what looks to be a 70's built section. Parts of it still look very much like a hospital from the 50's or 60's, certainly from the corridors anyway.Anyway coming back to civilisation after my appointment I needed a "comfort break" and used the loo's near the Millenium Sq entrance, just to the right of the security desk as you enter the building. Co-incidentally these are where the corridor to the old Opthamology Dept used to be, so I had a quick nosey but the whole area is blocked off now and looks disused.There was a tale going round a year or so ago that the NHS were looking to move all the hospital facilities out of the LGI up to Jimmys, to cash in on the prime city centre site, although I've not heard much about this lately. The site is massive though and must be worth an absolute fortune. It would definataly be worth documenting as it stands.
Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act – George Orwell

mlh24
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun 13 Apr, 2008 7:47 am

Post by mlh24 »

I've also heard about everything moving to Jimmy's, apparently by about 2012. If anything is left at the LGI site (probably in Jubilee Wing as it's the newest) it'll be just admin departments. I also heard that there were plans to sell of the whole of Brotherton Wing, block it off from the rest of the hospital, and it would then be turned into shops etc. Don't know how true any of that is though...I'm wondering what, if anything, is going to be done with the Welcome Wing, which is currently completely closed due to the high levels of asbestos in there? I think it's being slowly removed (judging by the Asbestos Removal vans that are always parked outside), so maybe it will reopen one day?

Trojan
Posts: 1990
Joined: Sat 22 Dec, 2007 3:54 pm

Post by Trojan »

raveydavey wrote: As a kid (mid 70's), I was "under" the Opthamology Department (hope I've spelt that right!) for my dodgy eye.That used to be on the ground floor of the Brotherton Wing, just through the doors opposite what is now Millenium Square. It was in the same place in the fifties when I used to go. You went in through the door you describe and down a slope, there was a huge waiting area with benches, and a row of doors with numbers on them, we had to go to room 1/2 hand in our appointment card and then wait to be called. The toilets were at the top of the slope on the left. When I was admitted for surgery on my eye (I was 6) I was on ward 6, I asked to go to the toilet, they said do you know where it is and I said yes and set off for the ward entrance to go downstairs to find the toilets in the Brotherton Wing. I was brought up in a back to back with a shared outside toilet, so it never occurred to me that there could be more than one toilet in the hospital.
Industria Omnia Vincit

stuke73
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat 24 Jan, 2009 4:53 pm

Post by stuke73 »

I worked at the LGI for a number of years and I spent a fair while trying to find hidden places. I have been up on the roof area from the balconies mentioned above. My work took me all over the hospital, all of the ards and I think it ws the cancer ward on D floor (though memory is a bit vague) that We (my friend usually accompanied me on these mini expeditions) accessed the balcony from, just walked through on a warm day. Then we went up some outside stairs (which you can see from over the road) and onto the roof. Also been on the helicopter pad area - this was when they just opened Phase 1 (now Jubilee Building) and had not installed a lock on the door at the top of the lift. Spent lots of time (when we should've been working) sat at the top of the stair well in Jubilee, on the wide window ledges looking across the city with especially good views of Emly Moor transmitting tower. We were directly above the roof top garden mentioned in this thread (which we also frequented). But it was the underground I was fascinated with. I did managed to have a quick look in a tunnel on A florr of the old buidling. The maintenance men had left the padlock off the door. My friend stayed by the door as watch and to prevent me being locked in and I ran along a low, dimly lit straight corridor for a while until I came to an old room with the sound of machinery. I climbed up a ladder - about 10-12 feet to peer over a tall wall that didn't reach to the ceiling. There was a dark room with machinery in cages and daylight from somewhere around a corridor. I didn't go any further and made my way back. I was convinced there were tunnels deeper down - I wondered if there was an entrance near the entrance on Calverley street - saw the maintenance men open a door and looked like they went down some stairs. I had been down a leveel from A floor, there were some offices and I think the Ear dept or something like that - I remember delivering down there but didn't find any ancient looking tunnels as I wasn't able to venture too far on that floor. Sunshine Corridor - yes, very warm and sunny, it's true. The smokers did hang around there and yes they were from the respiratory wards. Unbelievable. I always thought it was awesome how you could enter the building on Calverley Street, and without goign back outside go through the old site, into Jubilee, into Clarendon, into Dental Hospital, into University and out other end, a long way from where you went in! Massive combined area. Random facts- Jimmy Saville had his own office with his name and credentials on plaque on 6th floor (if I remember correct) of Martin Wing. Before Jubilee we had to go from main site to Clrendon through an old tunnel suported on metal frame work quite high above the groundBodies were kept in Dental Hospital (think 10th floor?) for medical students to study. Once got permission to go and have a look but bottled it at the last minute. The guy who was going to show us around was nicknamed Stiff John.

stuke73
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat 24 Jan, 2009 4:53 pm

Post by stuke73 »

I worked at the LGI for a number of years and I spent a fair while trying to find hidden places. I have been up on the roof area from the balconies mentioned above. My work took me all over the hospital, all of the ards and I think it ws the cancer ward on D floor (though memory is a bit vague) that We (my friend usually accompanied me on these mini expeditions) accessed the balcony from, just walked through on a warm day. Then we went up some outside stairs (which you can see from over the road) and onto the roof. Also been on the helicopter pad area - this was when they just opened Phase 1 (now Jubilee Building) and had not installed a lock on the door at the top of the lift. Spent lots of time (when we should've been working) sat at the top of the stair well in Jubilee, on the wide window ledges looking across the city with especially good views of Emly Moor transmitting tower. We were directly above the roof top garden mentioned in this thread (which we also frequented). But it was the underground I was fascinated with. I did managed to have a quick look in a tunnel on A florr of the old buidling. The maintenance men had left the padlock off the door. My friend stayed by the door as watch and to prevent me being locked in and I ran along a low, dimly lit straight corridor for a while until I came to an old room with the sound of machinery. I climbed up a ladder - about 10-12 feet to peer over a tall wall that didn't reach to the ceiling. There was a dark room with machinery in cages and daylight from somewhere around a corridor. I didn't go any further and made my way back. I was convinced there were tunnels deeper down - I wondered if there was an entrance near the entrance on Calverley street - saw the maintenance men open a door and looked like they went down some stairs. I had been down a leveel from A floor, there were some offices and I think the Ear dept or something like that - I remember delivering down there but didn't find any ancient looking tunnels as I wasn't able to venture too far on that floor. Sunshine Corridor - yes, very warm and sunny, it's true. The smokers did hang around there and yes they were from the respiratory wards. Unbelievable. I always thought it was awesome how you could enter the building on Calverley Street, and without goign back outside go through the old site, into Jubilee, into Clarendon, into Dental Hospital, into University and out other end, a long way from where you went in! Massive combined area. Random facts- Jimmy Saville had his own office with his name and credentials on plaque on 6th floor (if I remember correct) of Martin Wing. Before Jubilee we had to go from main site to Clrendon through an old tunnel suported on metal frame work quite high above the groundBodies were kept in Dental Hospital (think 10th floor?) for medical students to study. Once got permission to go and have a look but bottled it at the last minute. The guy who was going to show us around was nicknamed Stiff John.

mlh24
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun 13 Apr, 2008 7:47 am

Post by mlh24 »

stuke73 - Jimmy Savile did have his own office/suite, but it was on the 6th floor of the Welcome Wing, the building of which he helped to fund. As mentioned earlier, the whole wing had to close a couple of years ago due to asbestos, and the latest I heard is that it's due to be knocked down. My office overlooks it, so should be interesting if and when it happens!I also remember the 'tunnel on stilts' that ran from the main site to Clarendon Wing. I think it went round the back of the Pathology building (roughly where the Jubilee link is now) and you can still see the bricked-up hole in the wall of CLW. I started working at the LGI in July 1997 and can remember being taken over to Clarendon through the tunnel, but 'Phase 1' opened a few months later, so I don't think the tunnel would've been there for much longer.

Trojan
Posts: 1990
Joined: Sat 22 Dec, 2007 3:54 pm

Post by Trojan »

mlh24 wrote: stuke73 - Jimmy Savile did have his own office/suite, but it was on the 6th floor of the Welcome Wing, the building of which he helped to fund. As mentioned earlier, the whole wing had to close a couple of years ago due to asbestos, and the latest I heard is that it's due to be knocked down. My office overlooks it, so should be interesting if and when it happens!I also remember the 'tunnel on stilts' that ran from the main site to Clarendon Wing. I think it went round the back of the Pathology building (roughly where the Jubilee link is now) and you can still see the bricked-up hole in the wall of CLW. I started working at the LGI in July 1997 and can remember being taken over to Clarendon through the tunnel, but 'Phase 1' opened a few months later, so I don't think the tunnel would've been there for much longer. I remember the tunnel to the Clarendon Wing from the main site too.
Industria Omnia Vincit

ceejaylufc
Posts: 41
Joined: Wed 02 Apr, 2008 7:29 am

Post by ceejaylufc »

The tunnel was still there in 2005 when I worked there so would assume it is there now. Whoops I thought you meant the underground tunnel from Clarendon to Brotherton wing.

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