Moorgreen Hospital Morgue - Southampton

Moorgreen Hospital Morgue – Southampton

Moorgreen Hospital Morgue – Southampton – Hampshire

 

I have visited this site once before to investigate the main hospital that was closed in 2009. Half the site is still in use but they are currently deciding the whole sites future. Rumour has it, the whole place will be built on with houses. The main closed part is stripped bare and nothing remains. mostly pitch black and office rooms. I didn’t bother taking pictures of these.

I had always wondered if there was a morgue. I found a hospital map and I was correct! Found the place on the map and decided to investigate. The people I was with went off to investigate a workshop. I discovered a building with chapel like windows, looked around it and found the entrance. As I stuck my head in I realised it was the back of the morgue fridges, carried on in and found the Chapel! A quick phone call to the others to tell them and they thought I was taking the piss! There was even the death register in the desk with all the personal details in from 2009!

History:
The hospital was built in 1848 at a cost of £7000 as the South Stoneham Union Workhouse to the designs of Charles Henman, implemented by William Hinves. The name was subsequently changed to West End Institution. At one time the workhouse employed 300 paupers to work on 20 acres of cultivated land.

In 1920, the South Stoneham Union was renamed Eastleigh. In the 1930s, the workhouse became a Public Assistance Institution known as the West End Institution, and was renamed Moorgreen Hospital when the Ministry of Health took over the site as part of the formation of the NHS in 1948.

In 1977, the UK’s second NHS palliative care hospice opened on the site, named Countess Mountbatten House. The hospice was a joint project between the Wessex Regional Health Authority and Macmillan Cancer Relief. Before 1977, all hospital palliative care was provided in acute or community hospitals, and only 20% of patients died at home.

At the time, Countess Mountbatten House was the first to offer an integrated service of beds, community care and support for hospital staff, including education of non-specialist staff and volunteers.