FAIR MILE HOSPITAL
This was the sad end of the Fair Mile Sports & Social Club building when the redevelopers moved in in 2011. Part of Newlands Way now stands on this area and the FMSSC is well established in The Morning Star.
The interior of the chapel at Fair Mile in 2011.
This was once the 'gallery' of one of Fair Mile Hospital's Faringdon ward. Although essentially a wide corridor, it was a comfortable, multi-functional space with views towards the Thames. Under redevelopment, it became a spacious and stylish home.
A party of interested visitors toured Fair Mile's wards, corridors and communal spaces during the redevelopment process in 2011. This was the Recreation Hall, now known as the Great Hall. The false ceiling was removed and the proscenium arch, disguised by the lurid orange panelling, was restored to its original form.
Seen in 2011, the awful steel water tower was built in the 1930s, when piped water first reached Fair Mile. Residents and staff much preferred the sweet water from artesian wells, that had always been used before.
This is the rear of Hermitage ward at Fair Mile, which looks towards the river near what is now Southby Close. The conservatory was originally an open verandah provided for tuberculosis patients, since plenty of fresh air was known to be helpful in their recovery. Traces of the structure can still be seeon in the walls.
Although life in a mental hospital was never ideal, the staff developed close and caring relationships with their patients. Nurse Lilian Brignall is seen in the garden of Female 6 (later Faringdon) ward in April 1925.
The gardens at the front of The Bungalow, the former Isolation Hospital at Fair Mile. The male nurse is Renato Zito, one of the trainees who were recruited from all over Europe in the early post-war years.