In March 2025, a group of former Newcastle General Hospital nurses visited the old hospital site, now owned by Newcastle University. Clearance of the empty and derelict buildings began in May 2024, which will be replaced by the Health Innovation Neighbourhood (HIN). This development will bring together education, research, innovation, healthcare, workspace, and a range of residential dwellings. 

This visit was part of the Newcastle General Hospital (NGH) Community History project, delivered by Northern Cultural Projects with support from Newcastle University Engagement & Place.  

The recording includes a brief talk about the hospital’s early years as a workhouse by local historian Mike Greatbatch. Mike covers the origins of the Poor Law System, which centralised welfare provision and established workhouses where the impoverished worked for lodging and sustenance.

Following this was a summary of Newcastle University’s plans by Carrie Rosenthal, Community Engagement Manager for the Health Innovation Neighbourhood. She discusses the site’s redevelopment into a Health Innovation Neighbourhood—a forward-thinking project aimed at fostering sustainable housing, healthcare, research, and green public spaces to enhance community wellbeing.

“…the nurses who worked here were the poor nurses, we were the workhouse nurses, and the proper, proper nurses were at the RVI…”

One nurse reflected playfully, drawing a link between the sites 19th-century roots and the hardworking staff who worked there in recent decades.

Watch the video below: