As part of Bath Medical Museum’s new Digital Curation Strategy, we are curating a web-based virtual model of the former Royal Mineral Water Hospital building, affectionately known as the Min. The 3D model will serve as a living record of the building’s life as a hospital. Over time we’ll populate it with sound and visual content relating to the Min’s historic features, artwork and object collections, as well as memories and experiences of its staff and patients.
 

We have teamed up with the Creative Computing Department at Bath Spa University, our website designer Dr Lee Scott, and Harry Wyatt, an architecture graduate from the University of Bath. Working closely with the Royal United Hospitals, Bath (RUH) and the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases (RNHRD), Bath Record Office and representatives of the building’s new owner, Harry has been tasked with creating a digital model of the building as it stood at the time of opening in 1742. Making use of the building’s original and more recent architectural plans, Harry has completed the exterior and most of the interior of the building. The aim is to produce a guided virtual tour featuring sound and visual content telling the story of the building’s life as a hospital in the Georgian era. We hope to complement this with further models showcasing the building’s life as a hospital in the Victorian period and during the 20th century. Our ambition is to build similar virtual models of various unique buildings around Bath with a connection to the city’s medical history. For now, we need your help to complete the initial project – the virtual model of the Royal Mineral Water Hospital as it was in the 18th century. 

We have successfully raised over £4,000 and completed the first stage, the creation of the exterior and interior rooms of the hospital. We now need to complete the interior of the model and fill it with sound and video content to bring the hospital to life. So, please, donate whatever you can, and help us ensure the unique and important medical heritage of one of Bath’s iconic Georgian buildings is kept alive for the benefit of the local community. 

You can find out more about the project on our website Preserving the Min: Bringing the Royal Mineral Water Hospital to life. 

You can also explore some of the rooms already completed and learn about life in the 18th century hospital on our website at www.bathmedicalmuseum.org/min-model/