This is one pretty local to me and after an afternoon out with Wevsky and Justin we had been talking about how trashed the place had become. Recent photos show rooms full of graffiti and loads of the interesting bits now gone or smashed up. A recent report on the Hospital by 2wid showed off the ‘best’ bits. We decided a return trip was in order to try and capture the place a little better to my old report when I had just got my camera.

I am quite satisfied with the photos from the day. It was a nice easy stroll to kill the remainder of the afternoon and a good chance to take some time capturing the feel of the place before it gets any worse.

There is already a load of history scattered around the internet so ill crack on with the photos...

We started our trip into the unknown,

Right at the back where ivy had grown

Moving on through room after room,

Although rather clean we’d gave up pretty soon,

But carrying on bits looked pretty neat,

Now we enter the Goths retreat,

See the oak stairs glow in the light,

Get out the w’angle to catch it just right,

A grand old fire stands alone tall and proud,

Thus concludes our look around,

Visited with sapaceinvader and wevsky,

Not a bad little walk on a Sunday...:thumb

A massive thumbs up goes out to IanB for all his hard work on this one. We originally visited the site a couple of nights before but had limited time as the sun set. Rewind to a sunny Saturday morning and here we are again: Space invader, Sliver Rainbow, Wevsky, Troglodite.

Present name Royal Victoria Hospital

Previous name(s) Folkestone Dispensary (1846-1863), Folkestone Dispensary and Infirmary (1863-1890), Victoria Hospital (1890-1910)

Address Radnor Park Avenue Folkestone (Since 1890)

Previous location Rendezvous Street, Dover Road

Foundation Year 1846

Status

Pre 1948 Voluntary, Military

Post 1948 NHS

Type

Pre 1948 General

Post 1948 Acute, Geriatric, Other: stroke rehabilitation, eye surgery and GP patients (from 1979)

Folkestone's Royal Victoria Hospital was built, facing Radnor Park, between 1889-90, at a cost of over £7,300, with 33 beds, a dispensary, consulting and operating rooms.

In 1973 the maternity unit was transferred to Willesborough Hospital. Following the opening of the William Harvey Hospital at Ashford, this hospital was transformed into a centre for geriatric, stroke rehabilitation, eye surgery (1980-1994) and general practitioner patients. There is a published history of the hospital: Martin Easdown, A Grand Old Lady: The History of the Royal Victoria Hospital Folkestone, 1846-1996 (1996)

In October 2008 Plans to sell part of the Royal Victoria Hospital in Folkestone were placed on hold after bats were found in the building. During an ecology survey the Pipistrelle and rare Serotine bats were discovered in the back of the main building and in the separate Wakefield Hall. Since this was reported in 2008 after the building had already stopped being used used for in-patient wards for over a year. The Royal victoria hospital finally shut its doors in 2009 (although some is still active) and patients were moved to William Harvey Hospital in Ashford.

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Here are a few photos from a recent wander round herne bay and blean woods. The sun shone through giving a nice relaxed atmosphere throughout the afternoon. Anyway, some photos...

Cheers for looking

Buckstone Brown Farm is situated in a small place called Down in Kent. It was a research establishment for the Royal College of Surgeons, England from the 1930's up to the early 1990's when it closed.

Sir George Buckston Browne bought Charles Darwin's former home Down House in 1927 and founded the Buckston Brown Research Farm in Downe in 1931.

The Old Manor House

The Research Facitlities

After a quick trip around a few sites with VWDirtBoy, UJ, Frosty, Maniac and Wevsky. We saw this charming little gem. Im suprised this place hasn't had more attention by local explorers. Although the building has suffered fire damage and has clearly seen its fair share of damage over the years it still has a nice, photogenic feel. Very relaxed explore to end the day, no security on site and access found quite easy. This was wesatmount college which originally had an entrance into the also explored winchelsea tunnels located in the nearby quarry. I'll let the photos do the talking...

Thanks for looking.

There is alot of history on this place available on the internet. Alot of the Buildings have gone now but there is still alot to see. Workmen on site made an interesting day.

AEI cables are supplied into market sectors including Construction, Defence, Fire Protection, Industrial, Mining, Oil and Gas, Power and Rail. The Gravesend site was finally closed to production in 2008.

Visited this one with wevsky, maniac, space invaider, Troglodite, peach and pez

These tunnels were used by the workers during WW2. They have been kept in a lovely condition and may have now been sealed.

near Youlgrave, Derbyshire is a seven mile West-East gash in the landscape which was filled with calcite and other important minerals. The Long Rake Spar Mine Company was started in 1867 to extract the calcite which is used for road white lining, surfacing for horse arenas, graves, terazzo floors and pebbledash.

Visitd with Shadow, Maniac and Frosty

At Tower Hamlets of Dover lies a system of tunnels forgotten for years. Over the last few years its secrets have been uncovered. This is an excellent example of one of Dover’s many WW2 ARP shelters. Parts of the tunnels have now been separated and are now used for storage by various shops above. Was good to finally tick this one off the list.

History of this place has been covered many times all over the internet. The school occupies what used to be the Lillesden Estate Mansion, built at the estate (south of Hawkhurst) in 1855 by the banker Edward Loyd, who moved there after marrying. The house and estate remained in the family until just after the First World War, when it was then sold and eventually became the Bedgebury Girls Public School.

The school closed around 1999 and has been abandoned ever since. Due to the theft of its lead roof, water damage is now sadly causing the buildings to collapse and there are no signs of restoration in the near future. The building has become worse by the month and large amounts of damage and graffiti have occurred.

Sitting below the coast guard station in Langdon, Dover, is a tunnel used duing WW2. This has been maintained well and is still accessed by the coast guard station and they have even installed a small gym.

Not huge but interesting and nice to see.

Ok so after our first plan being a failed attempt better set for another night we decided that we had to get something done and as us Thanet boys like our local bits we decided to think of something a bit closer to home. We put our heads together and then I remembered a little building I had noticed quite some time ago.

A nice relaxed explore was had and it gave us something to do. Through all the damage and decay of this place was a beautiful little explore. There has been a large fire at some point and the building is in the early stages of being restored.

This is actually the last remaining building of Kent College which went years ago and left this listed chapel sitting around a now much built up area.

It was good to get another one ticked off the list.

Visited with Fat James, Uncle B, Wevsky and our mate.

Exterior

Interior (a lot more grand than we thought from the look of the building).

Thanks for looking

This one has been done to death by explorers, locals and kids in the general area. This has to be one of the largest unofficial tourist attractions in the UK. At one time on my original visit you could walk through any entrance and we bumped into people all day with no worries. The site has slowly become more secure over the last year and security has become tighter. I think this is now my 6th visit to the hospital and im planning to head back up soon. After seeing yet another report on the internet about west park i found that a demo team may be moving in and the site could go soon. With so many bits i hadent seen i needed to get back up there. This was the perfect way to end the weekend. Throughout the explore with maniac we heard security round the site nailing ne boards to every door and window in sight. We managed to do a couple of bits i had not seen previously. All in all a good 7 hours.

Lots of history is available on the hospital on the internet already so i wont go into details but it has been left to decay and form one of the most beautiful places i have ever been as its slowly reclaimed by nature.

this was pure luck. Whilst heading back from dunguness after the sunset via dover I noticed something that didnt seem quite right and grabbed my attention. Maniac quickly parked up the car and off we went for a look. This was good as night had began to draw in so the darkness gave the perfect cover to hunt round at various possible entrances and then suddenly we notice an opening...

This had been seen by a n other explorer as went we returned home we saw a report from the night before on the same place. Fair play to these dover lads who seem very quick off the mark.

Now this has been given many names and recently another but ive always known it to be as posted after JV documented it well some years back. The tunnel was used during ww2 as an arp shelter but consists of various tunnel sections. Cowgate tunnel, Historex Tunnels, and also a large lime kiln. This made for an interesting explore and alot larger than we had imagined.