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Witton Isolation Hospital burnt down in 1967

Both hospitals were built before around 1900, and can be seen on Mike’s post 12. The first hospital gave way for the building of both the library and the fire station around 1933. The second hospital lasted until 1967 and the destruction can be seen on Morturn’s post 9.

Never heard anything before about the fire station being haunted.
 
Not in my back yard.

In 1883 there was a meeting at Upper Thomas Street school, Aston, to protest against the erection of a small pox hospital in Aston Road. There had been negotiations with the Rural Sanitary Authority at Erdington, but they had broken down.

Some suggested the hospital should be built next to the Local Board Offices where there was not the aspect “of a dead wall, cat and dog piled up canal, with a dung wharf thrown in for extra flavour.”
 
Aldi is where Land Rover Services was. Just down is the old Mayfair Cinema: shops now but the sign is still there - 482. Take a look. The old Isolation Hospital (burned by firemen) is where sheltered bungalows are now between Dean Close and Roedean. The fire station looks fairly new & meant to be haunted. I wonder if this was the second Isolation Hospital and not Perry Common Library which looks much older.
I have a memory of what I thought was the TB hospital being burnt down purposely as TB had more or less been eradicated then - I was at Marsh Hill Girls senior school and we could see the smoke from the playing field behind the school.
I can't remember what year that would have been but very likely 1967 - would that have been the place of this thread title?
In 1967, I was at Greenholm Primary School. We all watched the smoke.
Later, I went to Marsh Hill boys' (Grammar, Technical School). It became just Marsh Hill School when I was in the 4th Year. The Staff Room was in the old boys' school (South building). The Head was in the old girls' school (North building). I can't remember who was in the old boys' school Head's Study, Deputy Head, I think. When it became Josiah Mason College, a link was built between "what used to be the two chemistry labs". At that point, the field behind the two schools was lost, as the access between the two schools no longer existed. There was no way to get to the field behind. Since Josiah Mason College closed, both of our schools have been demolished - sad.
 
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Aldi is where Land Rover Services was. Just down is the old Mayfair Cinema: shops now but the sign is still there - 482. Take a look. The old Isolation Hospital (burned by
Aldi is where Land Rover Services was. Just down is the old Mayfair Cinema: shops now but the sign is still there - 482. Take a look. The old Isolation Hospital (burned by firemen) is where sheltered bungalows are now between Dean Close and Roedean. The fire station looks fairly new & meant to be haunted. I wonder if this was the second Isolation Hospital and not Perry Common Library which looks much older.
Kevin

firemen) is where sheltered bungalows are now between Dean Close and Roedean. The fire station looks fairly new & meant to be haunted. I wonder if this was the second Isolation Hospital and not Perry Common Library which looks much older.
Aldi is where Land Rover Services was. Just down is the old Mayfair Cinema: shops now but the sign is still there - 482. Take a look. The old Isolation Hospital (burned by firemen) is where sheltered bungalows are now between Dean Close and Roedean. The fire station looks fairly new & meant to be haunted. I wonder if this was the second Isolation Hospital and not Perry Common Library which looks much older.
Th
Aldi is where Land Rover Services was. Just down is the old Mayfair Cinema: shops now but the sign is still there - 482. Take a look. The old Isolation Hospital (burned by firemen) is where sheltered bungalows are now between Dean Close and Roedean. The fire station looks fairly new & meant to be haunted. I wonder if this was the second Isolation Hospital and not Perry Common Library which looks much older.
Kevin I actually always thought Aidi was built on the site of the old Mayfair Cinema, but I see now its where the shops are after Aldi
Cannot place the passage way I used to walk through is it around Sunny bank and the Rugby club ground or was that part of the isolation hospital?
Did not realise either that there was another isolation hospital in Perry Common or if splitting hairs Kingstanding.
 
This is the passage we used to walk down on the way to the Mayfair. It's out the back of Wimpole Grove, off Plumstead Road.Ashampoo_Snap_2019.11.14_16h08m52s_001_.png
 
And here's the other end on College Road, behind the bus shelter. The area to the left was where the Mayfair was and to the right the Isolation Hospital.Ashampoo_Snap_2019.11.14_16h15m13s_002_.png
 
In May 1885 the opening of the new hospital. Note that it is being described as Upper Witton fronting the road from Perry Barr to Oscott, and about 200 yards from the NE corner of the cemetery.

The land was purchased from the Honourable ACG Calthorpe.

8B1A3825-2DDB-416F-9BE0-2DE1F91D45B5.jpeg
 
An aerial view dated 1926. Part of the Isolation Hospital on the left and Weycroft Road is across the view from top right towards the hospital. The College Road still a single carriageway. The Mayfair Cinema was not yet built but work would soon start for an opening in 1931.
Screenshot (458).jpg

A similar view today and that white block of four houses on the corner of Weycroft Road and College Road shows in the 1926 view.
2019.jpg
 
It's really strange I live so local to where the Mayfair Cinema and the isolation hospital were. However, although I can recall the cinema slightly it was more the walk along the passage way gully that separated the building.
Back then I was lucky if my Mother let me travel around the block lol
So the gully.was kind of creepy to me.
 
Thats correct, the gully to the right of the Mayfair was called Mayfair Passage. I used to go there every Saturday for the 6d matinee. 1 1/2d on the 28 Bus from Short Heath. 6d for a jubbly from the shop next door to the left. 1 1/2d (penny halfpenny) on the 28 back home. that was my 1-3d pocket money spent.
 
In 1967, I was at Greenholm Primary School. We all watched the smoke.
Later, I went to Marsh Hill boys' (Grammar, Technical School). It became just Marsh Hill School when I was in the 4th Year. The Staff Room was in the old boys' school (South building). The Head was in the old girls' school (North building). I can't remember who was in the old boys' school Head's Study, Deputy Head, I think. When it became Josiah Mason College, a link was built between "what used to be the two chemistry labs". At that point, the field behind the two schools was lost, as the access between the two schools no longer existed. There was no way to get to the field behind. Since Josiah Mason College closed, both of our schools have been demolished - sad.
 
An aerial view dated 1926. Part of the Isolation Hospital on the left and Weycroft Road is across the view from top right towards the hospital. The College Road still a single carriageway. The Mayfair Cinema was not yet built but work would soon start for an opening in 1931.
View attachment 139142

A similar view today and that white block of four houses on the corner of Weycroft Road and College Road shows in the 1926 view.
View attachment 139143

The picture by OldM is of the upper hospital shown in Mike’s map in post 12.

When this hospital was burnt in 1967 one report stated that the hospital was 60 years old, and therefore would have been built around 1907. However the two hospitals are shown on the 1904 0S Map (revised 1901), and neither exist on the 1884 published map. Wikipedia describes Witton Isolation Hospital as the Upper hospital being built in 1884.

Post 28 shows that the lower hospital was opened in 1885, and might alter the date given by Bill Dargue...

“Hawthorn School has an interesting origin. Pending the building of Hastings Road Council School, it first opened in 1925 as Perry Common Temporary Council School and was held in the buildings of the former isolation hospital at the corner of Hawthorn Road and College Road. The hospital had been built by the West Bromwich Guardians of the Poor in this remote spot following a number of epidemics during the early 1890s. When the various blocks at Hastings Road, later Perry Common Primary School, were built and opened in turn by 1926, this school was reorganised and in 1935 was renamed Hawthorn Road County Primary School.”

According to Bill part of the lower hospital was closed as early as 1925, and there is a reference in May 1928 of a memorial from Perry Common residents which complained of rats at the temporary infant school. The building had been in use for 3 years. The rest of the site would have disappeared around 1933 when the Library and Fire Station were built. In January 1909 there was a proposal to buy one acre of land and buildings, situate at Upper Witton, on the opposite side of the road to the Council's Scarlet Fever Hospital.
 
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