The ninth and penultimate episode of this ten-part series produced by Tyne Tees Television and written and presented by architectural historian and broadcaster John Grundy about the building that people have constructed over the centuries to help themselves work, live and enjoy themselves. In this episode John explore how medicine and illness have helped shape architectural development across the Northeast from the earliest monastic infirmaries through leper hospitals, almshouses, workhouses...

The ninth and penultimate episode of this ten-part series produced by Tyne Tees Television and written and presented by architectural historian and broadcaster John Grundy about the building that people have constructed over the centuries to help themselves work, live and enjoy themselves. In this episode John explore how medicine and illness have helped shape architectural development across the Northeast from the earliest monastic infirmaries through leper hospitals, almshouses, workhouses to the modern hospitals of today. Over a montage of John Grundy wearing various costumes and maps of the region the opening credits. Title: Grundy Goes… To Hospital Presenter John Grundy steps out of his house in the Newcastle suburb of Gosforth. As he walks into his street, he tells the camera he’s been very luck in that he’d not been to hospital for 43 years. As he walks along the street, he explains that while out on his evening strolls, he likes to keep an eye on the medical world making sure his future needs are being catered for. As he walks past the Gosforth Memorial Medical Centre on Church Road a montage of the 1920s building and details on some of its architectural features that make it nice and friendly and a source of pleasure. John walks along nearby Henry Street and points out some of the positive architectural features of a newly build Regent Park Court, sheltered accommodation for retired people. At the end of the road is St Nicholas Hospital, Newcastle main psychiatric hospital with the windows on the ground floor boarded up. Over views of the surrounding landscape John believes who ever built it wanted to create an idealised posh village. As John leaves St Nicholas he explains that this is going to be one of the main points of the programme that buildings like hospitals tended to be kinder than the average building. As he continues along Henrry Street, he picks up speed going into a jog arriving at nearby St Oswald’s Hospice. Over a montage of the oriental garden featuring both a fountain and pond filled with Koi as well as inside its chapel, John explains it is a friendly building built with warm natural materials, the kind of architecture perfectly suited to its caring purpose. Inside while reading Ellis Peters ‘Dead Man’s Ransom’ John explains that for many the idea of the first hospitals is that of something in a monastery with the sick being cared for by monks. The film changes to Fountains Abbey near Ripon in North Yorkshire with John providing details in voiceover about the monasteries huge infirmary pointing out some if its features including its own hall, chapel and kitchen with rudimentary food disposal grill in the floor. As he provides details of the monk’s lavatories, he rushes over wearing a habit to make use of the facilities which flush directly into the River Skell. Walking through what remains of the infirmary today, John talks about some of its architectural details which helps give the impression of how impressive a building it was. Over a montage of the abbey site John explains that it is a mistake to think of the infirmary like a modern hospital, it wasn’t. It was more like a Medieval version of sheltered accommodation for elderly or ‘infirmed’ monks. Over a montage of Sherburn Hospital just outside Durham City John explains that the earliest hospitals were built by the church as the bishop had a kind of statutory duty of care for his parishioners. Little of the original hospital remained except some windows in the chapel which date from the 12th and 13th centuries. Walking up to the gatehouse John explains that it is Medieval in date pointing out some if is architectural features including the barrel-vaulted entrance. As John comments that the gatehouse that it looking as if it was meant to keep people out or in, he explains that the hospital was originally a leper hospital, the most feared disease of the early Middle Ages, where its 65 patients were forcibly kept separate and locked away as much as possible. Dressed as someone of the Middle Ages, John closes the hospital gate and reads out a law passed in Berwick-upon-Tweed in the 14th century which states that should a leper enter the town, they would be stripped naked and turned out. Over views of the grounds of Sherburn Hospital John explains that with leprosy dying out in the 15th century it had to adapt to a variety of changed hospital uses. Today it is a retirement home with an elderly woman walking through its grounds past its mid-18th century cottages. Other buildings built on the site feature with John taking a seat on a bench to admire the hospitals prettiness. Over a montage of various almshouses in the region including Holy Jesus Hospital and the Keelman Hospital in Newcastle, Cosin’s Almshouses on Palace Green in Durham City and the Master Mariners’ Home at Tynemouth John explains that almshouses were built as a kind of retirement home often founded by the rich as an act of charity such as Whittingham Tower in Northumberland which was remodelled as an almshouse by Lady Ravensworth in 1845 ‘for the benefit of the deserving poor.’ Probably the most beautiful of them all, explains John, is the Sir William Turner’s Hospital in the village of Kirkleatham near Redcar built in 1742. Over a montage of both the hospital and cottages, John provides detail on its history before taking a walk around the site providing further details on its layout and pointing out some of its architectural features. Standing outside one of the cottage John makes a piece to camera about wanting to find an inscription in which help was given to the ‘undeserving poor and those who never kept their houses tidy’. As he finishes a woman appears at the door inviting him inside for tea. A montage of the breathtaking Chapel at the hospital built in the Baroque style and showing how far charity went in the 18th century to salve the conscious of the rich. Sitting on a sofa inside the cottage John asks if there are any empty cottages, when he’s advised there was one free, he turns to them camera and says that he’s not leaving. Title: End of Part One Part Two Over more views of the Sir William Turner’s Hospital and other almshouses in the region, John re-caps the first part of the programme stating that hospitals up until the 18th century were really retirement homes with no more than the most basic health care. Following several historical images relating to the lack of health care for the poor, a bricked up decorative wall which is the remains of the first proper hospital to be built in the Northeast the Newcastle and Durham Infirmary along Forth Bank in Newcastle. Over a painting of the hospital shortly after it opened in 1751 John provides details on some of its architectural features. Two large portraits one of Sir Walter Blackett who was a benefactor of the hospital. Standing beside what remains of the infirmary today, John explains that from the 1730s onwards a movement began to provide free health care. However, he really wouldn’t like to be a patient of a hospital in either the 18th or 19th centuries simply because medical care wasn’t very good. An historical image of someone having an arm amputated changes to John laying on a table with knives and blades moved across his naked chest. Over a montage of the former Newcastle’s Fever Hospital on Walkergate John talks about the development of these establishments in the early 19th century when doctors realised the importance of keeping separate people with different illnesses. A montage follows of some of the areas dispensaries which provide free medicines and home visits to the very poor. Examples featured include Sherburn Hospital again near Durham, The Gateshead Dispensary on Nelson Street in the town and the Lying-in Hospital on New Bridge Street in Newcastle. The Lying-in Hospital which was also the former home of the BBC in the Northeast, changes to a historical image of it as a hospital that opened in 1826 and was designed by local architect John Dobson. A montage of the building follows with John talking about its ‘pretty Tudor style.’ Dressed as 19th century local historian Eneas MacKenzie, John approaches the hospital and reads outs some rather smug comments written by Eneas about the hospital and those who use it. Standing beside Eneas MacKenzie is John who explains that there was a catch to getting into one of these hospitals, you needed to know someone from the charity who could give you a signature to be admitted. If you didn’t know anyone then the only other option available was the poorhouse. A 19th century drawing of conditions inside a poorhouse change to a montage of the Newcastle General Hospital, formerly the Union Workhouse on Westgate Road in Newcastle. As John provides details of its workings, he also talks about the building being dower and depressing, a place designed for control and isolation. As John provides details on the Metropolitan Poor Act 1867 that brought about improvements, it also brought about the building of some of the great late Victorian and early Edwardian hospitals. A montage follows of the Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) in Newcastle with John providing details on its history as well as point outs some of the building main architectural features both inside and out describing it as a bright redbrick baroque palace, a treasure house of Edwardian design. As John walks along a long and rather sombre corridor he explains that while it may appear a little nightmarish, it is a vital element of a really important development in hospital planning, the Pavilion Plan. Over a montage of still images, photographs and plans John explains how the Victorians and Edwardians understood the importance of cleanliness, light and air and built self-contained wards of this long corridor. A montage of the children’s ward with tiled murals on the wall made by in Royal Dalton, an example of what John sees as how health buildings bring out the best in people. As hospital staff go about their work at a nursing station John explains how today we understand that surroundings matter as an agreeable surrounding eases stress and aids recovery. Sitting in the reception area of the new Maternity Unit at the RVI John states that extraordinary things are happening to the interior design of hospitals including carpeted waiting areas and comfy chairs with a relaxed décor. Inside a delivery room everything has been designed so that expectant women feel at home, happy and giving as a relaxing birth experience as possible. Back in the waiting areas a woman at the reception desk, an example of what John sees as new hospitals being more like hotels that includes shops and a bistro style restaurant. A corporate image that says, ‘were modern and customer friendly.’ As patients stand outside smoking their cigarettes, John explains how he finds this entertaining as it undermines the plush atmosphere but provides a human quality. As he is rolled along a hospital corridor on a trolley John recounts his time as a six-year-old having is tonsils out. He is pushed into the operating theatre where J ‘Cutter’ Grundy the surgeon stands in gown and mask. Looking down on the patient he places a mask over John face to administer the anaesthetics. Sitting up in a bed on a hospital ward John talks about how wards like these are much nicer and tolerable than when he was a child. As he talks about how they are more intimate a nurse come into another ward to speak with a patient in his bed. John explains that those who work in the National Health Service are doing everything they can to make hospitals less institutional and more friendly. Outside as patients and visitor arrive at the Freeman Hospital also in Newcastle, John states that hospitals today are more reassuring places to be poorly than at any other time in history. Credit: Written and Presented by John Grundy Camera Mike Parker Sound Paul Graham Dubbing Mixer Charles Heath Electrician Ken Hird Costume Tom Robson Graphics Alan Davidson Title Music John Cook Production Assistant Eileen Brown On-line Editor Mike Pounder Director / Producer Roger Burgess End title: Tyne Tees Television © 1996