A hospital in decay

One of the unusual locations of the "Unseen Photo Festival" a few weeks ago was this former Prinsengracht hospital situated at an Amsterdam canal.

It was a rather big building I had never visited before.

Inside it looked you entered a still operational hospital.

But when looking outside it was rather in decay. The hospital dated from 1854 and was originally intended for the wealthy citizins. In 1994 it was linked to another big hospital in Amsterdam.

The empty rooms had exhibitions with some photo's, which could not captivate me. I only could think of  how many beds with patients here had been.

And how fortunate you must have been to have a bed at the windowside with a view over the canalhouses to forget your misery of being ill.

A look from the window.

The stairwell.

One room had still the striped awnings down.

It is not yet clear what is going to happen with the property. Keep our fingers crossed for not again a five star hotel.
Linking to "Our World Tuesday"

Doors

Like it was made for "Ruby Tuesday" this door in the former Wilhelmina Hospital  in Amsterdam.

Every entrance had another modern one decorated with the old original sculptures.

Old hospital

This is a part of the "Wilhelmina Gasthuis", a former hospital in Amsterdam. In 1891, the ten years old Queen Wilhelmina laid the foundation stone for a new hospital in a park setting located outside the city walls.

An entrance gate to the former hospital.

With a beautiful arch.

In 1925 a start was made on activities that had changed the character of the hospital. New pavilions were erected where several clinics were housed. Many of them are preserved and are now used for businesses and homes.

After the closing of the hospital in 1983 the area was partially cleaned up but fortunately some old buildings have been saved thanks to the protests of the neighbourhood. I was surprised by the beauty of the old buildings, it would have been a shame to demolish them.

A new academic hospital the AMC was built in a suburb of Amsterdam.

An abrupt blogstop

You might have missed me a couple of days, well I was here in a hospital bed. Wednesday I went to my doctor for some tinnitus and headache problems. A very high blood pressure was ascertained and I was immediately rushed to hospital by ambulance. There I ended up in a kind of E.R-movie with a hospital admission as result.

I had my I-phone with me and this was the view from my bed.

 It was a rollercoaster experience to be in hospital so abrupt and to sleep (not) with 4 people together in a room. Two of them were very eldery persons who made a lot of noice during the night, with shouting and walking around and the third one had to throw up. When I finally fell asleep, I was woken up in the middle of the night by a nurse to check my bloodpressure.  But I will not complain, I was cared very well by very friendly nurses and doctors and after two days I could leave hospital and I am  home again.