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A return to the ~~Post Office~~ BT Tower gave me a chance to revisit the view of 'The Former Middlesex Hospital' as seen in Nightporter and, unfortunately, a year on the situation is really no different. Much like the "campaign backed by the Evenin' Stan'ard" to turn the site temporarily into allotments everything is all talk... and talk, as they say, is cheap - unlike the pricetag for the site.

I mention the price only because it seems that 'Kaupthing' now have CB Richard Ellis in hand to put the site back on the market. "Got to be worth a few bob, what with planning permission for a new and exciting (sic) 900,000 sq ft development by MAKE already in hand" they chirrup... personally I'd say that planning permission is a burden and not a benefit - one can only hope that somebody negotiates a price which allows them to chuck out the obscenity that is "NoHo Square" and go out and do something less boring instead with the site.

So - how did we reach this state... where a hospital is demolished and the land subsequently stands empty for years? Answer coming shortly, but first some history.

The first part of Middlesex Hospital was in Windmill Street in Soho and opened in 1745 - the site here was the second location and was built between 1755 and 1757. At the time the residents of London complained that the location was too far out of the city and that you had to cross the Soho fields to get to it. Seeing the extent of London now it's hard to imagine how this must have looked.

The hospital was extended over the years and numerous buildings were added - in 1929 a large area of the original hospital was demolished as it was in danger of collapse and was replaced with the a large seven-story 'H block' which opened in 1935 and was a familiar landmark known to all visitors.

Alongside this were a number of other buildings - notable here are the row along Nassau Street and 10 Mortimer Street. I mention these as the front walls of the buildings on Nassau Street remain and can be seen on the right of the site... 10 Mortimer Street is in the top right corner of the wasteland and is Grade II listed. Built in 1898 in red brick and Portland stone it started out as offices for an iron founders but was soon incorporated into the hospital. Interesting that the style of 10 Mortimer Street is "Art and Craft" which is the same as used by Ebenezer Howard, founder of Letchworth Garden City, my home town, as seen elsewhere in my photostream.

The chapel was started in 1891 and is rather different as the interior vaults were built in the Italian Gothic Style and are all marble and mosaic - quite stunning. The original architect was John Pearson although the building wasn't actually finished until 1929 when the demolition of much of the old buildings allowed the East window to be completed - the architect for this was one Frank Pearson, his son. John Pearson was one of the foremost Victorian church architects and if you're of a mind you can pay homage to him in Westminster abbey, which I think gives an indication of the esteem in which he was held.

The mosaics in the chapel are by Maurice Josey who's work can be seen across the country, most notably in St Pauls cathedral, Westminster Abbey and The Church of the Sacred Heart in Droitwich which is absolutely stunning. Regardless of whether you're into the style I can recommend a visit if you're in the area just to marvel at the work.

The hospital closed in December 2005 and services moved to the University College London Hospital on the Euston Road - from all accounts by this stage the buildings were unable to support modern hospital requirements although the staff appear to have enjoyed the surroundings.

In order to pay for the new hospital the site here was sold for development (but not before being used as a location for a film "Eastern Promises" where it appeared as Trafalgar Hospital). The sale for £200M (thought to be some £25M over value and even £175M was way more than expected due to the rising cost of property - good news for UCL hospital though) completed in June 2006 and the site was cleared, save for the chapel and 10 Mortimer Street, and there it all starts to go horribly wrong.

The developers were (you can tell where we're headed can't you - were) the Candy brothers, Christian and Nick who planned a £1bn development called NoHo Square. Now this would be fine if London had a Houston Street and you could have South and North of Houston.. but the history of Soho has nothing to do with South of anything so NoHo is completely meaningless.

I'll spare you the details of the innovative/thrusting/blue-glass residential/retail plans - this article in Property Week is fairly descriptive and contains much knob-waving by Candy and Candy over how spanky their plans were going to be.

Roll forward to late 2008 and Famine's Hand doth Stalk the Developer's Land in the shape of ~~Robert Peston~~ the Credit Crunch. The upshot of this was that the Candy brothers pulled out and 'swapped' developments with one in Beverley Hills - the fact that an informal valuation of the site puts it now at £120m may have something to do with this.

So now we have an empty site owned by the Icelandic bank Kaupthing (yes - that one which was nationalised) and in the current climate little chance of movement for some time. I can only hope that the chapel survives it's lonely existence in the middle of this barren landscape.

Who knows what may happen to architectural trends between now and when work does eventually re-start... green glass instead of blue?! The shot here reflects the multitude of styles in the area and hopefully this can be reflected in the plans.

Enjoy

Taken in: United Kingdom / England / London / Fitzrovia (show map)

Taken on: March 30, 2010

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Nightporter

Middlesex Hospital Chapel

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No please don't - not NoHo. This is London not New York

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BT Tower

View down on London

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Demolition

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No construction yet though

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Sets appears in: • Automagically Interesting • A different angle? more » • The reality of London • Demolition, Decay and Construction • All the Canon EOS 400D photos « less

Groups appears in: • Londonist • London by Londoners more » • Derelict London • Works in London • My So-Called Life (please remember your pics need text ) • Fitzrovia « less

Camera: Canon EOS 400D, f/4.5, 1/60 sec, 18mm, ISO 400 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 400D
Lens:	18.0-200.0 mm
Aperture:	f/4.5
Exposure Time:	0.017 sec (1/60)
Focal Length:	18mm
ISO:	400
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Average
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 Macintosh
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