That room on the eighth floor – the Norfolk & Norwich Hospital
I spent a day in Norwich trying to find the Norfolk & Norwich Hospital, which turned out to be a partial success, but my visit uncovered several more mysteries or lines of enquiry – what follows is a detective story, trying to uncover and document a place (the hospital) that is no longer there, by reading the physical clues that still remain.
'The Rings of Saturn' by WG Sebald starts with the author recovering from an operation in the Norfolk & Norwich Hospital, in St Stephen's Rd in Norwich, on the eighth floor of the 11-storey ‘Main Block’ building – he describes his stay in the hospital on the first page:
"I was taken into hospital in Norwich in a state of almost total immobility. It was then that I began in my thoughts to write these pages. I can remember precisely how, upon being admitted to that room on the eighth floor, I became overwhelmed by the feeling that the Suffolk expanses I had walked the previous summer had now shrunk once and for all to a single, blind, insensate spot. Indeed, all that could be seen of the world from my bed was the colourless patch of sky framed in the window." [Extract from 'The Rings of Saturn' by WG Sebald.]
Since Sebald’s journey starts in Norwich (he doesn't actually set off until chapter II…), I thought I should visit the hospital, and find out exactly where he stayed – and of course if you need to find anything nowadays you “Google it”. Very soon it became clear that the old hospital in which Sebald stays was demolished after 2003 (when it closed and moved out to the edge of the city), so it was then a case of trying to trace where it would have been. There are several photos online of the old ‘Main Block’ building of the hospital (a brutalist style tower block built in the 1960s – see above right), So by comparing Sebald’s photo of the window (which is the first photo to appear in the book), with the exterior view, it appears that he may have been in one of the single rooms at either end of the eighth floor.
When searching for information or photos of the old hospital I found some fantastic drawings and 3d Sketchup models of the ‘Main Block’ building, created and posted online by a user named Benny1982 (I’ve been unable to contact them to ask for permission to reproduce the images).
The drawings and models were invaluable for understanding the layout of the now demolished hospital and to work out the position of the ‘Main block’ building in relation to the old 18C parts that are still standing today.
I visited the site of the old hospital to look at the remaining parts and to find out where the old ‘Main Block’ building was located. Luckily some parts of the original hospital building were kept, including the very grand entrance (built in 1883), and forming part of the relatively new "Fellowes Plain" housing development, which is named after William Fellowes, a founder of the hospital in 1771.
The photo (below left) shows the ‘Main Block’ being demolished after 2003 – the corner of the 8th floor has been demolished which could be the room in which Sebald stays. By comparing maps of the old hospital, and plans of the new housing development, I was able to locate where the 1960s 'Main Block' was located (see plan below right).
In a curious twist, the roads of the new "Fellowes Plain" housing development are named after prominent people connected with the hospital (see the plan above) – so even though most of the hospital buildings are gone, the presence of the founders and hospital staff live on in the street names. This seems very fitting since ‘The Rings’ is all about people from centuries past, or places that have vanished or changed beyond recognition here in the present.
I suspect if Sebald visited now he would be intrigued by the street names and would have expanded on the lives of some of the people commemorated there:
Sarah West – the hospital's first matron,
Thomas Wyatt – an architect of the 1883 building,
Edward Jodrell – a major benefactor,
Benjamin Gooch – a surgeon and founder of the hospital,
Phillipa Flowerday – first known industrial nurse who worked at Colman's mustard factory in Norwich,
Kenneth McKee – a surgeon famed for hip replacements. (Source: wikipedia)
I spent what seemed like hours wandering the maze-like streets of the new development, getting lost at times, something I'm sure Sebald would have appreciated, as he was partial to a labyrinth. It was good to locate the old hospital, to imagine the 11-storey block towering over that part of the city, and to picture Sebald looking down from the window of “that room on the eighth floor”.
If you want to see the old hospital, including the original part from 1771, get directions to 'The Pavilion' 70 St Stephens Rd, Norwich NR1 3RE. It takes about 20 minutes to walk from the Railway Station via Rose Lane and All Saints Green, or only about 10 minutes from Haymarket (Hay Hill in front of Next) via St Stephen’s Church and Chantry Place (Chapelfield) shopping centre.