The Royal Victoria Military Hospital at Netley was not only England's biggest building, but also its "largest palace of pain", according to a 1900 report. Set on the shores of Southampton Water in Hampshire, it was created in response to the Crimean war, and designed to serve an empire. It would end up ministering to apocalypse. During the first world war, this sprawling brick behemoth – a quarter of a mile long – became a microcosm of what was happening across the English Channel.
Royal Victoria Hospital Netley. Built 1856 at the instigation of Queen Victoria whose attention was brought to the suffering of the troops in the Crimea. The hospital was the longest building in the world and demolished in 1966.
To the left of the hospital in the photograph is "Nightingale House" It was an officers' mess hall within the hospital grounds. "The Officer's Mess was completed in 1867 and was built to accommodate the Officers who were visiting or worked in the hospital. It was converted into luxury apartments in 1994 after being saved from demolition. It is now called Nightingale House, Nightingale Mews and Nightingale Walk and is a Grade II listed building.
