The Guest Hospital is a hospital in

Dudley Dudley is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the ...

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, part of the

Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust runs Russells Hall Hospital and Guest Hospital in Dudley and Corbett Hospital Outpatient Centre, in Stourbridge, West Midlands, England. It also provides community health services to the borough. It agreed i ...

History

Victorian origins

Situated in Tipton Road,

the buildings were originally constructed as almshouses in 1849 by the

Earl of Dudley Earl of Dudley, of Dudley Castle in the County of Stafford (now the West Midlands), is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, both times for members of the Ward family. History Dudley was first used for a p ...

to accommodate workers who had become blind in the

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

pits. In 1871 they were taken over by local chainmaker Joseph Guest. Joseph Guest was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

chainmaker who developed his industry in the Black Country of

Central England The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...

during the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

of the 19th century. Guest converted them for hospital use.

The 20th century hospital

In 1908,

Tipton Tipton is an industrial town in the West Midlands in England with a population of around 38,777 at the 2011 UK Census. It is located northwest of Birmingham. Tipton was once one of the most heavily industrialised towns in the Black Country, w ...

pawnbroker Hugh Lewis left his entire estate of £80,000 to the hospital. In March 1922, the hospital treated several victims of the Tipton Catastrophe, a factory explosion in which 24 teenage girls who were dismantling surplus

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

ammunition suffered extensive burns, 19 dying. Most of the hospital was rebuilt between 1929 and 1939, on the far side not visible from Tipton Road, though part of these new buildings were visible from Birmingham New Road which opened in 1927 and allowed for a second vehicular access point (which was closed in the 1990s). A new pre-fabricated timber/plaster board annex was added in the 1960s, and survived until the hospital's closure. The hospital's accident and emergency department closed in the spring of 1984 and was relocated to the new

Russells Hall Hospital Russells Hall Hospital is an NHS general hospital located in Dudley, West Midlands, England, managed by the Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust. The hospital is south-west of the town centre on the A4101 road, which connects to the Kingswinfo ...

. Around this time, fears were rife in the local area that Guest Hospital was on the verge of closure, but the opening of a new hydrotherapy pool and physiotherapy department in 1986 appeared to silence these fears. However,

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

officials announced in July 1990 that they were considering closing the hospital (along with nearby

Burton Road Hospital Burton Road Hospital was a National Health Service hospital situated in Dudley, West Midlands, England. History The hospital has its origins in the infirmary for the Dudley Union Workhouse which was built to the west of the main workhouse site ...

, which ultimately closed in December 1993) and expanding Russells Hall to accommodate replacement facilities, but the hospital survived another 17 years. The former nurse's home at the hospital was demolished in 1996.

New buildings

A new horseshoe-shaped extension was opened in 2003, but the old buildings - including the out-patients department - remained in use until October 2007. Most of the buildings are due to be retained owing to their historic importance, though some of the less significant structures are set to be demolished to make way for a housing development - these include the wards at the rear of the site which were built in the 1930s, as well as the hydrotherapy pool and physiotherapy department. The administration building, former out-patients unit and hospital lodge are set to be retained to form residential properties. In 2008, it was used to film Ghosthunting with... and stars from I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! ghosthunted in parts of the hospital, just six months after it closed. The hospital continues to operate as an out-patient centre.

Gallery

File:Joseph Guest Hospital Victorian wing.JPG, The Joseph Guest Hospital's Victorian wing. File:Joseph Guest Hospital 1960's wing.jpg, The Joseph Guest Hospital's 1960's Annex.

References

External links

Guest Hospital
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guest Hospital Buildings and structures completed in 1849 Hospital buildings completed in 1939 Buildings and structures in Dudley Hospitals in the West Midlands (county) 1849 establishments in England NHS hospitals in England