Starting Point - Netley Station. Finishing Point - Royal Victoria Chapel. Distance - 1 Mile
The Royal Victoria Military Hospital was a huge complex near Southampton constructed in response to the Crimean war and criticism of the medical facilities provided for those wounded in Crimea. Though famously Florence Nightingale criticised it's design which was said to have put more thought in to providing a grand edifice than suitable facilities for treating patients. It came too late for soldiers serving in Crimea but would go on to treat casualties of the Boer War, First World War and Second World War. The main building of the hospital was 1/4 mile long and at the time the worlds longest building.
The hospital had a pier but it didn't reach deep enough water to be effective for transporting patients as they would have to be transferred from ships in to small boats to land at the pier, it ceased to be used for patient transfer in 1901. The pier was used for visits by Queen Victoria from In 1900 a short branch was added from the nearby railway to take trains transporting patients in to the complex.
More about the hospital can be read on the Wikipedia page and the Netley Military Cemetery website
Below - A view of the hospital from the water. (Photo - Wikipedia)
The site of Netley station's goods yard has been redeveloped. One of the new roads, The Badgers, leads to a footpath that follows the former branch in to the hospital site. It curves away from the main line to the south before reaching Hound Road where it used to cross on a level crossing.
A small stretch of the trackbed is not a footpath, requiring a small two sides of a triangle detour on the nearby roads, picking the trackbed up where the path is shown on the modern Google Maps as the Hamble Rail Trail. It ran along a cutting and at the time of my visit was a bit overgrown and muddy but passable.
Another road is crossed and the path emerges in to the Royal Victoria Country Park that has been established on the hospital site and passes close to the park's cafe and site maintenance facility. These fine wooden buildings were originally a YMCA building added in 1940 to replace an earlier building nearby. More information about the building is given on part of the Hampshire County Council site.
A more thorough exploration of the former railway can be found on the Netley Military Cemetery website including more archive photos and a few bits of rail I missed.
The road that ran at the back of the original Victorian hospital buildings is still there and has rails from the rail connection still in place. The area is now used for car parking so some cars may be parked over the rails. A memorial with information boards marks the site of the station where patients were transferred to the hospital.
Below - Rails at the site of the railhead at the hospital. The point for the siding that ran in to a carriage shed alongside the road can be seen.
The use of the hospital declined after WW2, having played an important part in D Day. After the war it was last used to process Hungarian refugees in 1956 before closing in 1958. A large fire damaged much of the building in 1956 and most of the complex was demolished in 1966. Some of the buildings built in later years behind the main hospital building including a mental hospital that was established remained in use until 1978.
Of the original buildings only the hospital chapel remains. This includes the bell tower that once stood at the centre of the complex. The chapel now serves as a museum and tells the story of the hospital, it's staff and the patients it cared for.
On the land behind the original hospital buildings there is a miniature railway, the Royal Victoria Railway.
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