Leicester’s Hospitals at 250

September 2021 marks 250 years since Leicester’s hospitals were established, when the Leicester Royal Infirmary opened its doors for the first time.

Starting with just 40 beds, two physicians, two surgeons and two nurses, University Hospitals Leicester (UHL) is now the largest employer in the county, with over 2,000 beds, 700 consultants and 4,200 nurses across three hospital sites - Leicester Royal Infirmary, Leicester General Hospital and Glenfield Hospital.

I was commissioned by The Arts and Heritage Trust at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL) in 2019 to make a series of images of the older part of Leicester General Hospital (LGH) as part of the celebrations of this important anniversary.

As a photographer I am drawn towards details and how they create for me, a sense of a place and how even the most apparently mundane aspects are important to my understanding and appreciation of that place.

In approaching this work I became aware of some beautiful aspects of this part of LGH, as well as an awareness of it as a place of work over generations.

My intention has been to reflect that beauty whilst at the same time identifying situations and details that suggest a daily working environment.

Hence, for example: coloured files glimpsed through lovely Arts and Crafts attained glass; a simple light switch surrounded by a bronze front plate with deep patina; marks on walls and amazing furniture.

This work will be exhibited at Leicester General Hospital and I will lead photography workshops with staff who will produce images of their own to be shown alongside the commissioned ones.

The Coronavirus Pandemic has delayed to completion of the commission and the physical exhibition of the work. The inclusion of this set of images here creates a publicly accessible online show alongside the actual exhibition.

Until the age of 8 years, I was brought up on council estates on the outskirts of Scarborough, a seaside town in North Yorkshire. On 19th March 1963 we moved into the town itself, which opened up a whole new range of possibilities for escape and adventure. I explored the town and particular places as if I owned them. This was a fantastic time for me: an intrepid explorer in my own town, hidden amongst the holiday-makers and day-trippers.

I have decided to embark on a long-term project looking at those special places of my boyhood wanderings, and these images are where I have got to so far. They are not intended to be a record of what was and I have tried to avoid the merely nostalgic. Rather they are images made of what I see there today and what captures my eye now, through the filter of decades. 

The River Trent flows past Radcliffe on Trent less than a mile as the crow flies from our house.  The village’s name derives from the red cliff that the river flows alongside. These images were made as I explored the area on either side of the river between the sites of two long gone ferries at Stoke Ferry and at Radcliffe itself.

This project includes photographs of the river and the cliff top walk, the wharf at the mobile home site at Radcliffe and around the Ousedyke at Netherfield and Netherfield Lagoons  (sometimes described as the old pit ponds).