This might be your last chance to see the haunting beauty of Old Vic before it's redeveloped
Colin Butler | CBC News | Posted: August 7, 2020 9:15 PM | Last Updated: August 7, 2020
The City of London has announced it will sell off more of the old South Street hospital land
Image | War Memorial Children's Hospital
Caption: The War Memorial Children's Hospital will be sold off as part of a larger parcel of land to developers. (Colin Butler/CBC News)
They've been a ghostly and apocalyptic-looking presence in SoHo for more than a decade but now some of the last shells of what remains of the former Victoria Hospital will be sold off to make way for a new residential neighbourhood.
The City of London announced Friday it plans to sell off another parcel of vacant hospital lands so it can be redeveloped as part of a wider effort of revitalization in the area.
Image | Victoria Medical Services Building
Caption: The view through a construction fence at the Victoria Medical Services Building, part of a 5.5 acre parcel of land the city says it's looking to sell. (Colin Butler/CBC News)
The properties include 124 Colborne Street, a one-acre parcel, as well as a five and a half acre parcel bounded by Waterloo Street, South Street, Colborne Street and Hill Street that includes the former War Memorial Children's Hospital and old Health Services Building.
Since the last wing of the former hospital closed in 2013, nature has largely reclaimed the area, showing us what happens in a world that isn't consistently manicured by human efforts.
Image | Victoria Health Services Building
Caption: Built in 1921, the Victoria Health Services Building was once a medical research building within the former Victoria Hospital campus. (Colin Butler/CBC News)
Looking at in the neglected buildings can feel as if you're looking back into time or at a piece of someone else's life.
The SoHo area is in the midst of a major redevelopment aimed at reinvigorating the neighbourhood.
London city hall has already approved a residential highrise project at the corner South and Colborne to be built by Toronto-based Medallion Developments. The design includes two highrise and two lowrise buildings that will incorporate the Colborne Building, a heritage structure built in 1899 as part of the Old Victoria Hospital.
Image | Old Vic, South Street hospital
Caption: The City of London plans to sell this five and a half acre parcel of land, which includes the now abandoned Victoria Health Services Building (right) and the War Memorial Children's Hospital (left), both built in the 1920s. (Colin Butler/CBC News)
Image | Colborne Building
Caption: London city hall has already approved a residential highrise project at the corner of South and Colborne to be built by Toronto-based Medallion Developments and will incorporate this building, a heritage structure built in 1899. (Colin Butler/CBC News)
Image | War Memorial Childrens Hospital
Caption: The War Memorial Children's Hospital was first established in 1917 at the South Street site at Old Vic. The Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire raised enough money to build the special facility pictured above, which opened in 1922 with a total of 60 beds. (Colin Butler/CBC News)
Image | Victoria Health Services Building, South Street hospital
Caption: The former South Street Hospital was founded in 1875 as the London General Hospital on what was then known as Ottoway Avenue, known today as South Street. (Colin Butler/CBC News)
Image | Children's War Memorial Hospital, Old Vic, South Street
Caption: The Children's War Memorial Hospital, seen here in August of 2020, has sat abandoned for a number of years. (Colin Butler/CBC News)
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