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…
The glass bridge. In need of painting, like everything else
So long... (and tortuous according to the endoscopists)
Radiology reception, Floor E.
Moribund microscopes
And no it wasn't Dr Seuss, apparently
X-ray in A&E, and an autograph book of radiographers
Floor D. Ward D, Ultrasound & the Stuart Davidson angiography suite.
Another ward now devoid of beds, patients, and staff
The Battlefield Rest, the former tram shelter, as seen from the radiology department, the latter now long demolished
The labs on Floor D, long vacated
Rooftops
The Battlefield Rest, and the Victoria Annexe behind. The Annexe has since been demolished.
Forlorn and forgotten forensics
Portable x-ray machines, laid off due to lack of patients
The final ward round? No patients. But biscuits, probably.
Peace falls finally on the emergency department. It's doors never closed, until now.
View from the corner of Sinclair Drive.
Another ward bites the dust
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.
Lead coats in the radiology department
The towers on the ward blocks
The radiology department secret staff room, looking out over Battlefield
Floor E entrance opposite Queens Park, with the Victoria Panther prowling above the crest
Keeps you fit...
Leaky roofs, rotten windows: not quite fit for the 21st century
The last remaining circular balconies. Will they be restored when the site reopens as housing?
Lesson for the day
The memory tree, main entrance
Multiple generations of audivisual display equipment. And that awful carpet.
Lab litter
More wards gone forever
Radiology reporting workstation, in what was once the urology department on Floor D
The Floor D corridor
The Emergency Department
Farewell
Time for one last cup of tea?
Resus room, ED
Ward block and annexe from Sinclar Drive; the same shot as that taken in 1927 and seen in the Victoria Infirmary History book
View from Queens Park
Last orders in Cafe Fleuré
The fluoroscopy room, Floor E.
Not for much longer they won't
Given this is a hospital, one hopes not.
Another ward ready for the movers
The Emergency Department, I think
The Mansionhouse Unit, built 1971, but now gone, replaced by new housing
An ode to the Vic - James Blunt would have been proud
Behind locked doors: Some parts of the Vic had been off limits for years, and it shows.
The departments slowly fade away
An old copy of Health News, found in the abandoned labs building. First impressions of the Victoria's replacement, the QEUH.
An affectionate view towards Langside Library
The Accident & Emergency Department closed a week earlier, on 16th May 2015
No more Nightingare Wards
The glass bridge to the office block
No point tidying up anymore
Tears amid the blu tack
So that's where my lead coat went...
Floor E entrance
The Porters, on a permanent lunch break
Floor E entrance, with the panther. Ground floor at one end, yet on the fifth floor at the other. Endless confusion, happy days
The resuscitation rooms in the Accident & Emergency Department. Many a life saved, but the ambulances don't call round here anymore.
Team Radiology, busy to the very end.
The CT scanner at The Victoria. This machine still runs flat out in the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital every day.
Equipment awaiting transfer to QEUH
A metaphor for the hospital?
Lifeblood of the department, and a career devoted to the Vic. Ultrasound, Floor D.
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.