Express & Star

'This community has transformed me' - Former domestic comes full circle living happily in converted Wolverhampton hospital

Allison Bird feels she has finally 'come home' after finding happiness in the building where she once worked and which dates back to 1848.

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The former domestic worker at The Royal Hospital Wolverhampton has lived in Nightingale House, a residential development dedicated to people aged 55 and up, since October last year and has become the public face of a development of 48 apartments in the same building where she used to work.

L-R: Matt Moore (CEO at Morro Partnerships), Gary Fulford (CEO at whg), Rt Hon Pat McFadden and Cllr Steve Evans
From left: Matt Moore (CEO at Morro Partnerships), Gary Fulford (CEO at whg), Rt Hon Pat McFadden and Councillor Steve Evans cut the ribbon at the official opening of Nightingale House in May

It offers safe and affordable living for all residents in a complex which has transformed the 60-acre site on Wednesfield Road, formerly home to the hospital.

Nightingale House, set within the former Royal Hospital, officially opened in January within the converted former hospital.
Nightingale House, set within the former Royal Hospital.

For Allison, it is a far cry from where she previously lived, above a newsagents in Portobello, Willenhall, where she had to access metal stairs just get into the small, one bedroomed flat.

She said: "I spent four years there and the only person I used to speak to was the shopkeeper - I felt isolated, lonely, vulnerable and the flat really was just not suitable for me."

The mother of five, who turns 64 next month,  spent time living in Dublin, Rhyl and Liverpool for family reasons but eventually came back to Wolverhampton where she worked as a domestic at the hospital for three years in the 1980s.

Allison Bird who worked at the Royal Wolverhampton Hospital as an A & E domestic in the 1980s and is now living in the same building
Allison Bird who worked at the Royal Wolverhampton Hospital as an A & E domestic in the 1980s and is now living in the same building