Eerie pictures show crumbling shell of abandoned Victorian hospital that was rebuilt after typhoid outbreak – with wards strewn with medical equipment and even children’s toys

• Derbyshire Royal Infirmary once suffered a typhoid outbreak and has been closed to the public since the 1990s
• The sprawling infirmary now lies empty with hospital beds, wheelchairs and commodes scattered across corridors
• Children's toys - including creepy dolls without faces - can also be found throughout the crumbling building's wards

By John Hall
It was once a bustling presence in the heart of the city, but now Derbyshire Royal Infirmary stands crumbling and empty; quite literally a shell of its former self.
These are the eerie photographs of the abandoned hospital, which was first built in 1810 and suffered a typhoid outbreak in 1890. The building's design was blamed for the incident and led to it being restructured over the following three years.
In 1894 Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone of the new layout which featured 'onion' shaped towers to prevent the deadly disease coming back.
The infirmary eventually closed to the public in the late 1990s, with accident and emergency one of the first departments to move over the nearby Royal Derby Hospital - the second largest hospital in the East Midlands.
The sprawling Derbyshire Royal Infirmary building now lies empty, with hospital beds and commodes scattered across corridors, and sinister dolls with their faces removed sitting in the visiting quarters.

Remains: A corridor in the abandoned infirmary is littered with old hospital equipment. The sprawling building now lies empty with hospital beds across wards

Sinister: Dolls without faces sit on an old chair inside the empty Derbyshire Royal Infirmary. The building closed in the late 1990s after reopening in 1894

Creepy: A 'Troll' toy inside the visitor's block at the abandoned infirmary. The toy - synonymous with the 1990s - would have been left shortly before the building closed

Creepy: A wooden deposit for soiled dressing bags (left) gives the hospital an old-fashioned feel, although from the outside (right) you wouldn't know it was abandoned 

Abandoned: A wheelchairs and bed sit in an empty corridor. The hospital suffered a typhoid outbreak in 1890, with the building's design blamed for the incident

Shattered: The hospital canteen is littered with broken decorative plates. Many people have broken in to the abandoned building over the years to vandalise it

Old fashioned: Broken, dated technology is found throughout the hospital site, including these televisions and landline phones. The atmosphere is decidedly eerie

Spreading outdoors: Even the outside of the building is suffering from years of neglect, with mattresses and other items littering the grass outside

No beds: This vast room was once a ward in the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary. It would once have been lined with beds but now only the curtain rails remain in place

Dated: An old-fashioned computer and keyboard sit in the hospital's dark record-keeping area. The building has not been used for medical purposes for 10 years

Eerie greeting: The hospital's waiting room is littered with decorating equipment. The bright pink walls suggest it had been re-painted shortly before being abandoned

History: Hairdryers and medical equipment are scattered all over the floor of the building. Other artifacts found inside include a newspaper cutting from 1891 trumpeting Queen Victoria's visit to the city of Derby and the hospital itself (right)

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An old pram sits in an abandoned ward. The infirmary eventually closed in the late 1990s, with accident and emergency one of the first departments to move over the nearby Royal Derby Hospital

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Unused: The lifts have not been in working order since the last members of staff vacated the building in the late 1990s

Plans: An old floorplan of Derbyshire Royal Infirmary was found inside the building. There is some discussion that the site may be redeveloped over the coming years

TYPHOID FEVER - THE DEADLY BACTERIAL DISEASE THAT KILLED MILLIONS IN VICTORIAN BRITAIN

Typhoid fever is a bacterial disease transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person.
Without prompt treatment, it can cause serious complications and can be fatal. It is caused by a bacterium called Salmonella typhi, which is related to the bacteria that cause salmonella food poisoning.
The impact of this disease fell sharply in the developed world with the application of 20th-century sanitation techniques, but in Victorian Britain it was a illness that killed millions.
The symptoms of typhoid fever are divided into four stages, each lasting approximately a week, with the patient becoming increasingly exhausted and emaciated.
The first stage is flu-like symptoms, including high temperature, headache, cough and cramps, moving on to a feverish delirium and a rash on the abdomen in the second week.
By the third week the disease can cause abscesses, severe dehydration, increased delirium and intestinal bleeding, but by the fourth week the fever gradually subsides and symptoms lessen.
The most notorious carrier of typhoid fever—but by no means the most destructive—was Mary Mallon, also known as Typhoid Mary. In 1907, she became the first American carrier to be identified and traced.
She was a cook in New York. She is closely associated with fifty-three cases and three deaths.
Public health authorities told Mary to give up working as a cook or have her gall bladder removed. Mary quit her job but returned later under a false name. She was detained and quarantined after another typhoid outbreak. She died of pneumonia after 26 years in quarantine.
Because of the way the infection is spread, typhoid fever is most common in parts of the world that have poor levels of sanitation and limited access to clean water. Typhoid fever is uncommon in the UK, with an estimated 500 cases occurring each year. Most of these people are thought to have developed the infection while visiting relatives in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.