Photograph showing the front of the IDA wing , Cookridge Hospital, leeds.
The fate of man-made structures when man no longer has use for them.
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This sequance of photographs tells the story that resides in most urban architecture if it lays dormant or is forgotten about for too long. To tell this story Cookridge hospital is being used a s a case-study.
Cookrdige closed its doors in 2008, over the past seven years all but two of the hospital buildings have been demolished leaving the main building (above) and the IDA wing (first page).
Many of the rooms like the one through the door in this photgraph have no light at all since most of the windows are boarded up. Natural light like the beam illuminating the layers of colourful peeling paint is like treasure as far as photography is concerned
Cookridge hospital was opened in 1869 to provide a place for patients treated at Leeds General Infirmary to recoverr peacefully, as the area wasn’t built up like it is today. The first building was reportedly financed by a £10,000 donation from Mr John Metcalfe Smith, of Beckett’s Bank in Leeds. In 1886 Mr and Mrs John North donated the IDA building to Leeds General Infirmary for use as a convalescent home in memory of their daughter Ida. The below photograph shows the commemoative marble plaque which still hangs proud amongst the rubble. The photograph to the left illustrates the crumbling state the building has become in just seven years, partly due to man and partly due to the natural environment trying to take back the land whilst nobody is watching. This would be another non human related story abandoned buildings can tell, it doesn’t take long before they become part of nature with trees growing inside and birds nesting anywhere and everywhere. The layers of peeling paint are symbolic of the layers of stories the building has accumulated through history.
Over the years Cookridge Hospital was expanded vastly and served many different purposees. In the first world war the government took control of the hospital using at as a recovery centre for wounded soldiers. What Cookridge is most noted for however is being one of the first places to begin using radiotherapy for the treatment of cancer. The reason the building was chosen was again due to its remote loacation, away from the general population. It was just after the second world war so there were worries about the risks posed by further air-raids and the radioactive chemicals used in radiotherapy. Patients began being treated for cancer at Cookrdige this way in 1852, and it remained at the forefront of cancer treatment in britain from then until its closure in 2008. Pioneering new treatments and helping to develop technology, which would, and did give people a better chance of survival.
The photograph above shows one of the building’s current uses, many opportunist people target dissused buildings as a way to make money. Buildings in built up areas suffer this fate worst of all, there are usually holes in the walls made to get to the cables and then piles of wires or the surrounding rubber which isn’t worth anything. They are looking for copper because of its relatively high scrap value. The room this photograph was taken inside had clearly been utilized for wire stripping purposes as the floor was completely covered with theses tell tale signs.
The photograph above was taken in one of the old theatres used for operations in the main hospital building, the room has no windows so flash was essential. The photograph below shows a view down a first floor corridor of the main building, through a childs toy car. It is an illustration of another type of person who visits these buidlings, that is, children.
The photograph below was the last image captured on the second part of this shoot, it was getting late in the day and some unfavourable characters had showed up with tools and were making a lot of noise in the main building so it was time to call it a day. Photograph taken showing leaving the IDA wing, from behind.
The reason these two buildings still remain whilst the others have been demolished and replaced with a housing estate is that they are listed buildings. This is often the case with listed buildings because the costs to renovate them are so high it can take a long time to raise them so they are left in this way and become part of many other stories in the meantime. Through visiting many buildings like these it becomes easy to identify three strands these stories take by identifying the makers of them. There are the children who use the places as sort of really dangerous playgrounds, theres the looters who use them to make money by stripping every possible thing of value from them and as a contrast there are the urban explorers who are also usualy the photographers and whose moto is ‘Take nothing but pictures leave nothing but footprints’. Whilst the closure of Cookridge hospital was emotional for many it also marked the transfer of all services the hospital provided to a new £220million state of the art facility, the Bexley Wing at the more accessable St James’s Hospital. The remaining buildings too may have a possitve outlook as the development agency Turley suggests planning permission has been granted to turn the main building into a residential care home and the IDA wing into an extra-care housing facility. One ex-patient Micheal Cunnington has his own story about fond memories of the hospital, he remarks “:I was born in 1937 and about 1946 I had an eye operation at Leeds Infirmary, after which I enjoyed a period of convalescence at Ida. I remember playing games with other children in the ward and having my bed placed outside on a verandah during a lovely summer day. My stay at Ida has always been an enduring and pleasant memory.”. A pleasant memrory and a nice note to end on. ©Roseanna Gyles 2015