Leeds General Infirmary and the old George Street entrance

Leeds General Infirmary

The Leeds General Infirmary or LGI, is a huge teaching hospital in the centre of Leeds. The hospital has a large Accident & Emergency department, Intensive Care and High Dependency Units as well as state of the art operating theatres as well as a large maternity unit where both my children were born!

The first Leeds Infirmary was built in 1771 in what is now Infirmary Street, just off Leeds City Square but in 1863, construction started on the new hospital on George Street.

The architect was the well-respected Sir George Gilbert Scott, who was prolific at the time for his buildings in an English Gothic Revival. He was probably best known at the time for his work with Churches and Cathedrals, having started his career designing Victorian Workhouses. But nowadays his most famous building is probable the Grand Hotel at St.Pancras, London.

Before starting on the designs he spent time visiting many contemporary hospitals around Europe and he decided upon something known as The Pavillion Plan which had also been recommended by Florence Nightingale with high ceilings, good ventilation and lighting, lots of toilets, plentiful baths and hoists to make life easier for the nurses. In fact the LGI is largely based on Lariboisière Hospital in France and had a glazed Winter Garden in its centre.

The build was completed in 1868 by J & W Beanland. But coming in at a budget at the time of £100,000, the LGI remained empty in the first year as it hosted an exhibition of artworks which had been loaned in the hope of re-couping some of the construction costs.

The hospital actually was opened in 1869 by the Prince of Wales at the time, who would later to become King Edward VII.

Whist the hospital has been expanded a number of times including the Brotherton Wing in 1940 and The Clarendon Wing in 1984.

But it is the Victorian Gothic part of the hospital which still never fails to impress me as I walk past. The main frontage is on Thorseby Place but the South front on George Street is magnificent with its red brickwork and stone dressings, red granite pillars, slate roof with pinnacles and Venetian Gothic windows.

On entering the South entrance through a beautiful porch, you  end up in a recption hall with baronial fireplace.

This leads to a glazed roof corridor with columns and a stunning mosaic floor.

This the takes you to a magnificent staircase with decorative ironwork which leads to a landing with Victorian stained glass windows.

Hopefully you like the photographs I took with a lovely blue sky to provide a great background to the wonderful architecture. It is such a shame that we do not construct buildings like this anymore, with all decisions being about cost. But I think you will agree the South front looks more like a stately home than a hospital.