Incredible, three-dimensional ‘dolls-house’ images of the interior of one of Bath’s most historic buildings are destined for a new ‘virtual’ museum.
The NHS is in the process of moving out of the Mineral Water Hospital -which was built as a national hospital in Georgian times.
More recently it’s been known as the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases – a centre of excellence for arthritis and rheumatism treatments and research.
A new purpose-built unit has opened at the main Royal United Hospital site and the Grade 2* listed building in the city centre has been sold to a Singapore-based company to be transformed into a luxury hotel.
While medical facilities are being transferred to the RUH the Min’s chapel was also home to Bath Medical Museum – an historical collection of records, artefacts, paintings and other pieces of art dating back to the 1740s.
The collection is being dispersed around the city while the search continues for a new home.
In the meantime the museum’s on-line website is going through a transformation and is in need of financial backing and volunteers to help enhance its status – and this is where the three dimensional models come in.
I met up with Paul Thomas – a long term patient at the Min – to ask why he was involved in the fight to preserve the building’s history and then why the Medical Museum needed help from volunteers.
If you have a memory of time spent in the old building you need to press PLAY!
