The former hospital on the outskirts of Bristol which was ranked as the dirtiest in the country

In Bristol, a lot can change with time. Over the course of 20 years, new housing developments, shopping experiences and changes in the city’s appearance have seen Bristol constantly evolve with the times.

It’s not just the retail experience or the road network that changes over the years. The changing face of hospitals and ever-improving standards have seen major changes in Bristol, perhaps none more so than one particular hospital which was demolished in 2017, having been built in 1934 and in operation since 1938.

Barrow Gurney Mental Hospital, known simply as Barrow Hospital, was a mental health hospital on the outskirts of Bristol in North Somerset. It was originally built to take the strain off other hospitals in Bristol and the original plans were for the hospital to house 1,200 patients, however the Second World War halted construction of the planned buildings.

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It is now better known as the dirtiest hospital in Britain after a random check of almost 100 hospitals. At one point, it led the way for mental health care.

During the war, the mental hospital became a military hospital for the Royal Navy, where an average of 356 patients were housed on any given day. In 1946 it returned to its original use and two years later was brought into the NHS.

In 1951, there were 290 beds within the facility, which increased to 453 beds by 1960. In 1977, the number of beds decreased slightly to 356 beds.

Barrow Hospital was known to be a progressive hospital in the treatment of mental health and received patients from all over the United Kingdom. In the 1960s and beyond, reports seemed to suggest that standards were falling in the hospital, and in the 1990s and 2000s, the number of incidents would increase.

By the turn of the millennium, the facilities were out of date and the Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, which owned the hospital, decided to close the hospital, setting an initial date of 2008. An article, dated 29 September 2003, explained that the hospital would close as part of a £60m project to modernize mental health services.

Philip Milner, director of policy and partnerships at the NHS authority, said at the time: “The project will result in significant improvements to services. These include the replacement of Barrow Hospital, which should have been completed several years ago, the provision of new, purpose-built units and more rooms and better and faster access to services for users.”

In October 2005, the ceiling of the hospital collapsed on a pensioner while she was eating. The ceiling collapsed on the patient’s head and feet and the decision was made to close the hospital in 2006.

Before it closed, the hospital was ranked last in a national report that ranks hospitals by cleanliness. When 99 NHS and private hospitals were inspected by the Healthcare Commission, the hospital was criticized after inspectors found cigarette burns on floors, graffiti on walls and stains of urine and body fluids.

In the years since the hospital closed, the buildings began to deteriorate and in 2008 planning permission was granted to build offices and housing on the site. The southern area of ​​the hospital was demolished in 2009, and the other buildings were demolished by 2017.

The home is now on the grounds of the former mental health hospital. Barrow Gurney Mental Hospital was once a pioneer of mental health services in the UK, but just 18 years after the hospital closed, nothing remains of the nearly 90-year-old institution.

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