Get Well Soon

I'm quite a connoisseur of Yorkshire hospitals, since I've worked in lots of them recently.

One of my least favourite it St Luke's in Bradford, which has all the charm of a Victorian prison:

Some of it now belongs to ITV, who film that cutting-edge medical drama The Royal there.

Where we were working it looked like this:

One of those old, long, Florence Nightingale-type wards - very old-fashioned now. The ward was closed for good and used for teaching. The whole hospital's like being in a time warp and therefore ideal for filming a programme set in the 1960s.

It's gloomy and depressing. Okay, so part of it might be of historical interest, and they should keep a few buildings - there are plenty to choose from - as an Awful Warning. A comet landing on the rest could only create improvements.

Worse, by far, is the totally vile Beckett Wing at St James's Hospital. Worse because it's more modern and therefore gives me a generalised feeling that They Should Have Known Better.

It exudes misery from every brick. Close your eyes when you look at it.

Inside it's all nasty pastels, nasty smells, vitamin-free food and a generalised feeling of desolation and decay.

This is where we keep the old people. Still, the Beckett Wing must give each of them rose-tinted memories of the rest of their life, no matter how bad it's been.