The Victoria Infirmary finally closed to the public on 22nd May 2015, after 125 years service to the Southside of Glasgow. The A&E department had locked its doors a week earlier at 8am on Saturday 16th May, and during the week the remaining patients, staff and equipment were moved to their new home in the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
The full history of the Infirmary can be found in the account published by NHS GGC at the time:
To mark five years since the closure, the following gallery is a collection of photographs taken on that final day, showing both the sorry state of some parts of the ageing building, and the affection in which it was held by the staff who worked there.
Image gallery
Click any image to start…
Tears amid the blu tack
The radiology department secret staff room, looking out over Battlefield
The labs on Floor D, long vacated
Behind locked doors: Some parts of the Vic had been off limits for years, and it shows.
And no it wasn't Dr Seuss, apparently
Another ward bites the dust
Floor E entrance opposite Queens Park, with the Victoria Panther prowling above the crest
The departments slowly fade away
The Accident & Emergency Department closed a week earlier, on 16th May 2015
Multiple generations of audivisual display equipment. And that awful carpet.
Radiology reporting workstation, in what was once the urology department on Floor D
The towers on the ward blocks
Floor E entrance, with the panther. Ground floor at one end, yet on the fifth floor at the other. Endless confusion, happy days
An ode to the Vic - James Blunt would have been proud
Equipment awaiting transfer to QEUH
No more Nightingare Wards
The last remaining circular balconies. Will they be restored when the site reopens as housing?
Forlorn and forgotten forensics
Resus room, ED
The memory tree, main entrance
Peace falls finally on the emergency department. It's doors never closed, until now.
Another ward ready for the movers
The resuscitation rooms in the Accident & Emergency Department. Many a life saved, but the ambulances don't call round here anymore.
Lab litter
X-ray in A&E, and an autograph book of radiographers
Not for much longer they won't
View from Queens Park
More wards gone forever
Floor D. Ward D, Ultrasound & the Stuart Davidson angiography suite.
The glass bridge to the office block
Given this is a hospital, one hopes not.
The Emergency Department, I think
Another ward now devoid of beds, patients, and staff
Keeps you fit...
Lifeblood of the department, and a career devoted to the Vic. Ultrasound, Floor D.
The Floor D corridor
The Porters, on a permanent lunch break
So that's where my lead coat went...
Floor E entrance
Moribund microscopes
The Emergency Department
A metaphor for the hospital?
Leaky roofs, rotten windows: not quite fit for the 21st century
Lesson for the day
Rooftops
So long... (and tortuous according to the endoscopists)
View from the corner of Sinclair Drive.
The Battlefield Rest, the former tram shelter, as seen from the radiology department, the latter now long demolished
Team Radiology, busy to the very end.
Lead coats in the radiology department
No point tidying up anymore
An old copy of Health News, found in the abandoned labs building. First impressions of the Victoria's replacement, the QEUH.
Time for one last cup of tea?
Last orders in Cafe Fleuré
The Battlefield Rest, and Langside College in the distance. The netting kept pigeons out of the rooms, given the holes in the windows rarely got repaired.
The CT scanner at The Victoria. This machine still runs flat out in the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital every day.
Portable x-ray machines, laid off due to lack of patients
The fluoroscopy room, Floor E.
The final ward round? No patients. But biscuits, probably.
The Battlefield Rest, and the Victoria Annexe behind. The Annexe has since been demolished.
The Mansionhouse Unit, built 1971, but now gone, replaced by new housing
Farewell
The glass bridge. In need of painting, like everything else
Ward block and annexe from Sinclar Drive; the same shot as that taken in 1927 and seen in the Victoria Infirmary History book
An affectionate view towards Langside Library
Radiology reception, Floor E.
July 5, 2020 at 7:48 pm
I have fond memories of once having lunch in the consultants’ dining room in 1985 : white linen table cloths & napkins, full silver service, 3 courses with a glass of wine, and afterwards the gentlemen retired to the smoking room for their coffee & cigars.
Different world then.
July 7, 2020 at 10:47 pm
Before my time, and I was never so well looked after. They closed the dining room and sent us to the patients’ cafe, and by the end lunch was eaten at your desk while you carried on working!
January 4, 2023 at 5:19 pm
Lived in a house shared by nurses from the Victoria. Goodness they worked hard – but also partied hard. Great times back in the 60’s.