SketchUp Model of the Former Norfolk & Norwich Hospital in Feb 1988

In December 2014, I began a big project in memory of the former Main Ward Block and Maternity Block of the N&N Hospital. 11 years had passed since the hospital towers were demolished. I wanted to do a 3D accurate model of the N&N Hospital several years before closure and demolition. I looked at old newspaper archives and studied photos of the MWB so I could get the model to resemble the real former buildings as closely as possible. This includes the interiors, thanks to a few photos taken inside the building before demolition, of which the photographer has allowed me to look at and study as the visualisation for the model.

However, in February 2015, I was kindly allowed to view the microfilmed scans of the 1968-1969 original designs at the Fielden & Mawson Norwich office, in which I obtained copies. This will help with making the model as accurate to the real building as can be. I then abandoned the 2014 model and started again from scratch using the designs.

NB I have also saved a copy of the Feb 1988 version as a January 1994 version, the N&N hospital in early January 1994, with surroundings. This will enable me to take screengrabs of the MWB and Maternity Block from further afield exactly how the real view looked, ie from the Nestle Factory or the St Stephen's high rise Norwich Union towers and Debenhams.

As of August 2015, I have done a lot of the model, much is done but it still has a long way to go and I have all the rooms of the operating theatres and other areas to do next.

I have also done a night time version of the model on the night of 4th February 1988.

Virtual Tour of the N&N Hospital, on a sunny but cold early February day in 1988
Ah February 1988, the second month of the year in which we had Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue in the hit Aussie TV show Neighbours, which was being watched by millions here in England, and also Jason and Kylie were storming the UK song charts, as was Patsy Kensit and Prefrab Sprout, and back in the world of TV we had Emmerdale Farm, EastEnders and Coronation Street and 10'000 miles away, a month earlier, a sunny teen TV show called Home And Away begun, which was to air in Britain a year later. And the childrens shows in Feb 1988 were The Sooty Show and Raggy Dolls and factual shows was TV AM and the news bulletins. And in the Norfolk city of Norwich, the only city in Norfolk, as well as Norwich City Football team, Nestle Factory making tonnes of chocolate, it was business as usual at the Norfolk & Norwich Hospital just outside the city centre, the old city walls. So this is a virtual tour of the N&N in Feb 1988 using the accurate simulation of the hospital using the real floorplans which date from the 1960s. Many patients were probably watching Neighbours in the day rooms or listening to old and new songs on the Hospital Radio.

January 1994 version including city centre
I have saved a copy of the January 1994 version as I am doing Norwich City Centre as well as the N&N Hospital on the 4th January 1994. This includes the old central library which burnt down later that year and the old Nestle Factory and the Malthouse car park. Also I have hidden some of the black line geomerty on the MWB and a few other buildings to give a more aunthentic exterior look while not touching the interior areas.

January 1986 version with city centre
The N&N Hospital and the city centre on a cloudy day on the 9th January 1986. Right up to Jarrolds.