Royal Masonic Hospital: Ravenscourt Park

I didn't actually realise how closed I lived to this. It's just there, empty. The gate was opened so we were able to just walk right in. There was CCTV cameras and the lights were on. It was quite erie actually. It is a beautiful Grade 2 listed Art Deco building.

The building originally opened in the 1930's by King George V, it was built by and for the Freemasons. By the 1970's other private hospitals were opening in London and it ran into financial difficulties so by the end of the 70's it began treating non-Masonic patients. By 1994 the Freemasons closed the hospital after a mass vote. It was leased to the NHS in 2002 who used it as a treatment centre to cut patient waiting lists. It worked for a while but the hospital never had as manay patients through the doors as they originally expected and consequently they were operating at a loss and underusing the beds 106 beds - perhaps a victim of its own success with the backlog of patients being cleared. In 2006 the hospital closed with remaining patients being transferred to nearby Charing Cross.

I'm not sure of plans for the future. It certainly doesn't look like there is anything happening at the moment in terms of development. It is a real shame. We could only look at the front area, there is a whole other section around the back, its a really big site.