🗺️Sheffield, England
🗓️Nov 2020
🕵🏻♂️Explore #176
🏚️ Hidden underneath what is now the Garter Street Recycling Facility car park, lies the remanents of an old hospital used to treat injured steelworkers. The medical centre was part of a much larger complex attached to the Firth Brown steelworks. Firth Brown Steels was initially formed in 1902, when Sheffield steelmakers John Brown & Company exchanged shares and came to a working agreement with neighbouring company Thomas Firth & Sons.
The medical centre served as a Casualty Clearing Station (CCS) during World War Two. When Firth Brown Steels relocated in the 1950s, the old site was demolished to make way for new commercial developments. The area that encompased the medical centre was levelled off to make a car park for local businesses, hiding the site underground.
🕵🏻♂️ After clambering up a fairly large wall during the daytime on Carlisle St, I was able to drop straight into the entrance of Sheffield’s secret ‘underground’ hospital. What immediately struck me is how cold and claustrophobic the place was. It was hard to imagine it busy and filled with patients. It’s always a heavy explore when you know a place has experienced a lot of death and suffering. I was instantly hit with a strange and peculiar smell – a smell resembling damp concrete. Whilst originally not planning on spending too long in there on my own, I was actually inside for almost an hour simply because I found it to be such a sad, but fascinating and unreal place.
– Lost Places and Forgotten Faces
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Lost Places & Forgotten Faces 