Canadian Red Cross - Taplow (very old shots)

Visited many years ago with Andre, Marcus and Simon.
sorry for the qua;ity of shots, but theese days we had got no idea how to operate camera.

The Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital in Taplow, Buckinghamshire, was a pre-war civilian hospital and a centre for research into rheumatism in children. The hospital was closed in 1985.
In 1914, during the Great War, the Astor family family invited the Canadian Red Cross to build a military hospital on part of the Cliveden estate. The Red Cross built a small hospital, the Dutchess of Connaught Red Cross Hospital, on the site with equipment from Canada.

In 1940, during the Second World War, the Canadian Red Cross demolished many of the existing buildings to make way for a new, larger hospital with more equipment; this was named the Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital.

After the war the hospital was donated to the UK for use as a general hospital and research centre into rheumatism in children. Soon after the completion of its transformation, it opened to the public in 1947 and soon afterwards came under the supervision of the newly-formed National Health Service.

In the following years, the hospital gained a large maternity unit as well as further specialist rheumatism facilities and staff for the world-famous Special Unit for Juvenile Rheumatism. The hospital was also a training school for nursing and widwifery.

SOURCE

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Good stuff mate, Ive got a friend who went there and kept reccomending it, by the time we got round to it it had been demolished. The same with highmoor which was just up the road from me. Now my bedroom is made from the reclaimed bricks. Thanks for showing those

Very nice! No apology needed for your pics-they're great! Some very weird one's in there-the dog & the trashed Minor! Really glad you posted them!

These photographs bring back some great memories of the seminal urban exploration scene in the UK when Cane Hill and the Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital were the only places to go.

Wonderful shots - probably the best I've seen of the place.

It was a very strange and odd place in its later years. Quite gruesome as well.

The supernatural side of the Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital is explored iin the forthcoming book "Buckinghamshire Stories Of The Supernatural" by David Kidd-Hewitt. It's being published at the end of October. The author contacted Damon and Owen of "The Shrine" for the low-down on the infamous "Flincher" and I've added some memories of those halycon days.

All the best,
Simon

hey all im new to this site, but used to know the crx like the back of my hand.

went there on so many occasions ive literaly lost count.

i used to use the main crx sites and they posted one of my pics up on the main page.

unfortunatly after the demolition of the hospital the pic was changed.



i used to be in there loads, i was born there and live just over the river from where this great site was.

ive got pics but not on this pc, so will post them up asap

Fantastic pics, I will have to show them to my mum at some point. I was born there in 1981 and ever since I knew it had closed I wanted to visit the site and take some pictures. Am totally gutted I missed the opportunity .

Fantastic, nice to seedifferent shots of the place

I must have looked at the ones on Simon Cornwells site a million times.

I love all the rumours and storys that came from this place, its incredibly unique in that sense.


But if you look at it, in a material sense, it's not an attractive buildings, its just a prefabricated shell. That was a state from the second it was left to nature.

Truly a shame though.

From my website...

Upon its demolition the Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital moved from rather crappy, trashed old hospital to the stuff of supernatural legend! As part of this transformation, its sinister ghostly stories are told in Buckinghamshire - Stories Of The Supernatural by David Kidd-Hewitt. The Flincher is subject of Chapter 2 where Damon, Owen and I bring our urban exploration tales of the former hospital up-to-date.

I also wrote an epitaph of sorts which wasn't published in full in the book, so here it is.

"I recently discovered my website being discussed in an Enid Blyton forum. Apparently urbex|uk was viewed as some post-modernistic "Famous Five" story where several chums (high on the E-numbers in lashings of ginger beer) would search out the local old ruin in search of adventure."

"Looking back over the halcyon days of my website, I believe my visit to the Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital fitted this pattern. The trip wasn’t driven by architectural discovery and/or rich history but, by a romantic, almost Blytonist, search for adventure - specifically an encounter with The Flincher."

"Did we discover the hidden treasure, the secret tunnel to the smugglers’ cove, or even the menacing spectre itself?"

"No. We discovered a dirty, run-down, vandalised, wet and cold ruin of an unremarkable prefabricated building thrown up in the Second World War. We were more wary of asbestos than apparitions. But, looking back on my pictures, there was something eerie and unexplained in those buildings: the blackened bath tubs, the blood in the kitchens, the carefully smashed doors and the graffiti which seemed to linger a little too long on “green ladies” and ghostly imagery."

"Unlike the endless summer holidays of the Blyton novels, the CRCMH has also long gone now. Presumably anything supernatural will have also moved on. Which is an utter shame, because where will the explorers, thrill seekers, ghost hunters and fans of Blyton have their adventures now?"

Buckinghamshire - Stories Of The Supernatural by David Kidd-Hewitt costs £8.99 from all good on-line book stores.


All the best,
Simon

I worked at the Canadian Memorial Red Cross Hospital in the late 1970s. I was in the Physiotherapy department working with children and young teenagers with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. Treatments included stretches, strengthening exercises, hydrotherapy and traction. I worked up until 2 weeks before my 3rd baby was born in the maternity wing. In 1986 we took her back to visit the place she was born. The hospital had closed but was still intact and looked after by security guards. One of them showed us in to a storeroom containing dozens of Perspex baby cribs. He gave us one and told my daughter this was the one she was in when first born - which she believed for a few years! We took the crib home, filled it with water and kept tadpoles in it.
I have very fond memories of my time at the Canadian RedX.
Carol