Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital
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The Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital in Taplow, Buckinghamshire, was a pre-war civilian hospital and a centre for research into rheumatism in children. The hospital was closed in 1985 and lay derelict for more than two decades afterwards.
[edit] History
In 1914, during the Great War, the Astor family family invited the Canadian Red Cross to build a military hospital on part of the Cliveden estate. The Red Cross built a small hospital, the Dutchess of Connaught Red Cross Hospital, on the site with equipment from Canada.
In 1940, during the Second World War, the Canadian Red Cross demolished many of the existing buildings to make way for a new, larger hospital with more equipment; this was named the Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital.
After the war the hospital was donated to the UK for use as a general hospital and research centre into rheumatism in children. Soon after the completion of its transformation, it opened to the public in 1947 and soon afterwards came under the supervision of the newly-formed National Health Service.
In the following years, the hospital gained a large maternity unit as well as further specialist rheumatism facilities and staff for the world-famous Special Unit for Juvenile Rheumatism. The hospital was also a training school for nursing and widwifery.
[edit] Closure
In the early 1980s the hospital was becoming increasingly redundant due to health authority budget cuts and certain functions being superseded by the nearby Wexham Park Hospital in Slough. The closure of the hospital was announced in 1985 and it closed later that year.
The staff quarters remained in use until 1988 and, until this time, the hospital grounds were patrolled by security guards. After this, however, the hospital buildings were left abandoned and unattended.
The derelict hospital gathered quite a reputation locally for its state of disrepair and the site subsequently became a destination for curious local youths and urban explorers.
The buildings were finally razed in 2006 after the local council gave permission for developers to build houses and flats on the site.
