Abandoned Smallpox Hospital

This grand Georgian manor house was converted to serve as an isolation hospital before it was abandoned and destroyed.
The house was built in 1790 by the local industrialist Peter Drinkwater, who would become the Lord of the Manor of Prestwich. Irwell House’s grounds covered many acres of rural land around the river Irwell. Irwell house and the surrounding land were sold to Prestwich and Salford councils in 1902, who turned the grounds into Drinkwater Park.
The manor house was turned into an isolation hospital for smallpox patients. Its isolated location made it an ideal spot for treating sufferers of this highly contagious disease. The house was abandoned in the 1950s, and in 1958 was badly damaged by a fire caused by a civil defence exercise. Unfortunately, the house was allowed to rot after this, until a few years later the remains of the house were demolished, with just the foundations and the bricks of a few walls.