Research - Location, Location, Location: Hospitals

Our group gave ourselves quite a task by even contemplating using an abandoned hospital as our location. Needing the site within London, and preferably without a hefty price-tag, the scope of possible locations was much reduced. In London, we found around 20 unused hospitals in various states of disrepair and re-repair. Some had already been acquired for redevelopment, some were protected listed buildings, and some were tied to location scouting companies, charging huge amounts for crews to film in them per day. Our approach was that it won’t hurt to ask, so Too-ee have contacted many hospitals, trusts, companies, agencies and individuals to find a suitable location.

COLINDALE HOSPITAL
Barnet
Colindale was the first hospital we looked at, thanks to this page of photos from DerelictLondon.com. The site has been largely unused since 1996, although it is still in partial use by Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust (BEH-MHT). Colindale is a relatively historic site. In 1898, the Central London Sick Asylum moved from St Pancras to Barnet, and since then it has fallen into serious disrepair. In 1948 it became an NHS hospital and was renamed Colindale Hospital. We were given the e-mail address for the BEH-MHT Communications Department, who deal with press and media enquiries. We e-mailed them but have not, as yet, received a reply.

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
www.dh.gov.uk
At a long shot, we thought it was worth contacting the Department of Health for help – simply because there was no harm in trying. We e-mailed Steven Pollock of the Planning, Regions and Visits Department of the DoH press and media enquiries office. He hasn’t replied – and frankly isn’t ever likely to!

FILM LONDON
www.filmlondon.org.uk
Film London is an organisation which “promotes and facilitates” London-based productions. An integral part of their company is their Location Library service. Film London keeps a record of 10,000 locations in its library, with 2,500 available via their website. We searched through this archive and found several locations for ourselves, but we also e-mailed them to ask for help. They replied promptly with a folio of hospital locations from their library, including some we hadn’t come across at all. It was through them that we were referred to location scouting agencies like Locality, Locate Productions and The Film Office, who represented the different sites. Typically, each company would charge us a £75 booking fee (their student rate) whilst the location would charge us £500 a day for filming. Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children is still on Film London’s books but has now been sold off for redevelopment and Bolingbroke Hospital is charging an excessive amount for filming per day.
UPDATE: We contacted Film London once again to ask them for any abandoned buildings on their books in London. They came back to us with this folio of derelict sites - some of which look rather promising.

ST ANDREW’S HOSPITAL
Tower Hamlets
Film London also listed St Andrew’s Hospital on their online location library. Calling the location agency responsible for the site made it apparent that it had now been handed over for redevelopment. We visited the site in Bromley-by-Bow regardless to see the location for ourselves. Security was tight, with CCTV, patrols and guard dogs. Moreover, a 10ft blue fence made seeing even the outside very difficult. However, we were able to get the mobile number for the Site Manager, as well as film the visit. Video to follow.

CANE HILL HOSPITAL
Coulsdon, Surrey
Cane Hill is a well known derelict site on the outskirts of London. This location is interesting for several reasons. It is the subject of an uncommissioned documentary by Hipposcope Films, who have been granted permission to film at the site. This makes it less likely that we will be allowed to film there, as we could be disrupting their production. The site is also still in partial use by the South London and Maudsley (SLaM) NHS Trust. However, the biggest obstacle with this site is that it has been acquired for redevelopment. When we contacted the Communications Department at SLaM, we were told the site had been obtained by the Office for the Deputy Prime Minister, who had in turn handed it over to a firm called English Partnerships.

English Partnerships is a major national agency responsible for redeveloping large sites. It plans to do just that with Cane Hill under its nationwide Hospital Sites Programme. The good news is that its redevelopment is yet to be scheduled and as such is owned by English Partnerships, but they are not using it. It is by far the most extensive and impressive of all the locations we have seen and we would really like to use Cane Hill, despite it being so hard to get to. We e-mailed English Partnerships, but they are yet to reply.

BUPA HOSPITALS
Hartswood, Bushey, Roding
Thanks to Film London, we discovered that BUPA allows film crews to film in any of their hospitals free of charge. The charge for using many locations has been our major stumbling block throughout our search. So it would seem that this is the answer to our problems. However, the 3 BUPA hospitals in London simply aren’t suitable. Not only are they modern red-brick buildings, they are in use as fully-functioning hospitals. The disruption we would cause by running around the corridors would be wholly unacceptable and we are completely aware that a working hospital shouldn’t have to be burdened with us. So, despite being good for the wallet, BUPA Hospitals aren’t good as locations.

There are many other hospitals which we have looked at that were dead ends for various reasons. Putney Hospital, which fell into disrepair in 1999, has been converted into a new medical centre under a new name. (A new hospital elsewhere in London carries on the Putney name, to make things all the more confusing.) The aged South London Hospital for Women in Clapham has been recently demolished. The damaged and abandoned areas of Lambeth Hospital have been demolished and rebuilt.

Our search for an abandoned hospital location is ongoing and we will update the Too-ee blog as we progress.