Royal Hospital Haslar, Gosport

“Since 1753, The Royal Hospital Haslar in Gosport has provided medical care to the service personnel of the Royal Navy, and latterly, to the Army and RAF, and, in more recent years, civilians, too. The building of the hospital took 16 years and planning permission for it was first granted in 1745 by King George II, when the land was purchased.”

“Haslar frequently saw full wards, and over the decades would gain a reputation as an excellent example of military nursing care.

Casualties from all major wars were treated at Haslar. The sick and injured servicemen from Trafalgar, Corunna, Waterloo, and Army casualties from the Crimean, as well as the two World Wars of the 20th Century, and the Falklands, were all cared for at Haslar.”

“When Haslar first opened, some compared it to a prison. There were overcrowded buildings, discharged patients taking up home in the attics and reports of drunkenness and petty theft among staff and patients.”

The hospital closed for good in 2009 and has just been sitting there ever since. However there are plans to turn it into a complex of luxury flats.

The Explore 

First of all I have to say a massive thanks to @urbanchaser for help with this one! We met up near by and went to the access area, after waiting for a friendly dog walker to leave the area we jumped into the site. Once we were in the grounds of the hospital we were running to get out of the open and in between the buildings to find our way in. Thank god one of us had been before because the place is a maze and access was a right crafty little number, which I wouldn’t have discovered to be honest. I thought we were busted when we had to run past a random beagle dog which I was expecting to bark, but luckily he casually looked at us then carried on licking its nuts hahaha. Shortly after that we saw a man walking the grounds in slippers and a dressing gown….looking for a beagle dog we presumed.

We worked our way around the whole main buildings and all the basements and maintenance rooms. There are areas that we couldn’t get into as we found out……by accidentally setting off alarms haha!

Basically the place is massive, much bigger than I thought it would be. We were in there for around eight hours until we were caught all hiding in a small room by two security guards. One was a legend and one was a massive **** who ended up calling the police. The police couldn’t really have given less shits to be honest and we ended up just having a nice chat and a bit of a laugh then were sent on our way with good wishes and smiles all round 🙂

Sorry if this report has been done to death and if some of the pictures are similar to others, I have tried to put different ones in to the norm, but the staircase….well it would be rude not to take that shot!!

Plan to go back soon to have a look around what we missed the first time round, can’t wait!