The 550-year evolution of Queens College, Cambridge countrylife.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from countrylife.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Andrew Whitehead
The Whittington s 170-year-old Smallpox and Vaccination Hospital
- Credit: Andrew Whitehead
Sometimes, quite by chance, building work reveals a new vista on an imposing piece of architecture.
Take the demolition of some non-descript modern accommodation blocks on that part of the Whittington hospital grounds fronting Dartmouth Park Hill.
It has revealed the majesty of the oldest part of what is now the Whittington hospital - the splendidly Italianate, 170-year-old Smallpox and Vaccination Hospital, built to serve a purpose which, sadly, has such a contemporary ring to it.
It takes us back to another era when vaccination was a burning issue and a public health necessity.