Five images of The Royal Infirmary or to give it the name it had when it first opened, The Blackburn and East Lancashire Royal Infirmary. The foundation stone was laid on May 24th 1858 and it was built on land at Hollin Bank, which was purchased from Joseph Feilden Esq for £3,200 (£1,600 of which he gave back).
The money for the actual building came from various sources. William Pilkington Esq gave £2,000, the Trustees of The Blackburn Dispensary (which was a forerunner of the infirmary) gave £4,300, Mrs Pilkington originated a bazaar (over some period of time, I assume) which raised £2,839 and the operative (working) classes of the district raised £1,547.
Extra wings, a Childrens Ward and a Nurses Home were added in later decades and a lot of that was paid for by the Harrison family.
When the Royal Blackburn Hospital on Haslingden Road was extended a few years ago, parts of the Infirmary were demolished and the rest was left to rot. All that remains now, is a crumbling, dilapidated portion of the above photos.
COURTESY OF THE CP COLLECTION
I couldn't agree more with your comment "Left to Rot" Colin.
ReplyDeletePart of the contract for any developer who wanted to build houses on this site stipulated that the Victoria Wing must be retained and made into flats, or some sort of community feature. However, I have a strong feeling that the winning bidders never intended this to happen and they have purposely let the building fall into such a state of disrepair that the council will be forced into retracting this stipulation.......Tossers !!!!
Sadly the original part of the Infirmary has been demolished and it is this that should have been preserved rather than the so-called memorial wing that is now still standing. It is ugly and of no architectural value what-so-ever!
ReplyDeleteThey should flatten it and landscape it with just a small number of modest properties.
D oes anyone know if the ;tim capsule ;that was buried underneath the Victoria wing foundation stone has been recovered and if not why not . This must be of Historical importance and interest to the people of Blckburn. from interested party and local resident.
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