# High Royds Asylum, Underground and wards, March 08



## zombola (Mar 18, 2008)

I wont include any history as the place has been a hundred times over but I went in some new bits id not seen before, these are my pics.
Explored with oldboy.
We'd wanted to do the rumoured tunnels beaneath high Royds Hospital. I'd heard that they had been used to transport the patients during the war for fear of anything happening above ground. We arrived early on saturday morning. Oldboy knew of an entrance, when we got there - there were two builders busy putting up huge fence posts segregating the now occupied wards/homes and the deralict areas of the main building. these two builders were between us and our possible entrance, we hung around for about half an hour until we decided to go over to the childrens block and come back later.
The phone booth






we couldnt figure it out but there were two of these rooms that looked like interview rooms with a 2 way mirror. Possibly behavioural observation rooms?





this place seems much bigger on teh inside and there are many corridors leading off to different rooms





This building is so damp there are mould spores everywhere, odly adding to teh colour scheme





god only knows why... but, i didnt look in there!





valentine





some light fun with the torches in the bathroom
















one of the corridors, the carpet was soking and someone had strategically lifted all of the trap doors leading into tiny maintenance tunnels and one sewer so the place stank!





The mueral which im sure many ahve seen before





what it says on the tin





docs office, odd smell of coffee in here





and an old bike in teh shed





it didnt atke long to get round here so we figured the builders woould still be there so we tried the Male epileptic Block (Bolten/barden)

ground floor










up onto the 1st floor, these seemed to be some sort of acticity/common rooms on either end





although this is the ward for epileptics, there were a lot of childrens cartoons on the walls





down this lovely corridor










old boy





before going any further we decided to climb up into one of the towers





not much there really except a big water boiler, it seems the towers have never had any other levels and there is no way up to the top other than by ladder, just for show?










we then continued into the infamous solitary confinemnt ward










we stopped arsing about when we heard noises outside




turns out it was three studo's just wasing round the place like they owned it, banging on the windows. Turns out other than thsoe two builders we saw earlier there wasnt a soul around, both security huts had shutters down.

we then went over to the male Acute Block (Stainton/Marrick)





there was lots of crap in here due to the five oh using it as a sniffer dog training ground




















onto the male dorms















a gorgeous wall










the toilets





memories etched into the wall





purple haze





a nice glowing room from the 70's curtains





we then found a basement in one of the buildings close by. We turned a corner and saw a corridor leading off, low and behold we were in the tunnels we'd come to do all along!They are maintenace tunnels with pipe work and electrical equiptment. Finally an excuse to adorn our masks! We were weary of asbestos so were fully kitted in overalls, goggles and valved masks.





















there are quite a few main tunnels leading off but there were many sub tunnels that you'd have to literally squeeze through - leading off in all directions. However, these were fairly small and didnt seem to go anywhere.










Finally a small cellar where we could stand up and stretch our backs





or chill out!





a bit of light fun while we were down there










it was hot as hell down there and extremely dusty, we'd banged our heads and shins on a kload of pipes so i took the chance to sit down again






we saw a bit of daylight up ahead, we got there and teh ho,e was tiny, about 1ft wide by 1/2 ft tall, we gasped at fresh air, but then i decided i was feeling claustrophobic and just without thinking stuck my arms out, squeezed my head out and then pulled myself up and out.
We were in one of the yards near the new church, id seen these small hatches loads of times but never thought of them as access as they just looked too damn small. luckily we're both skinner beggers!






Oldboy sort've had to follow





so thats it, four hours later and we had done part of the tunnels and 3 wards I'd not been in before.

This report is linked to my previous two visits to high Royds, please have a skeg Here 

My full collection on flickr is here 

thanks for reading
Z


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## smileysal (Mar 18, 2008)

*Re: High Royds Asylum, Underground and wards 15/3*

Excellent pics. You've got loads of pics of part of High Royds that I haven't seen anywhere before. Brilliant. Liked seeing the tunnels too. 

Cheers,

 Sal


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## no1rich (Mar 18, 2008)

*Re: High Royds Asylum, Underground and wards 15/3*

Fantastic shots. Still have to do this place. Gonna drag my mate along when I get round to it, he'd be a good tour guide, worked there for 20 years. Keep hearing loads of stories from the old skool about it. Great report dude


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## zombola (Mar 18, 2008)

*Re: High Royds Asylum, Underground and wards 15/3*

thanks very much guys, not bad for a few hours, normally spend all day there. what did your mate do? Ask him if he knew 'Coffee Lill'


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## no1rich (Mar 19, 2008)

*Re: High Royds Asylum, Underground and wards 15/3*

Did his mental health training there. He was part of the furniture in the end


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## boxerheaven (Mar 19, 2008)

*Re: High Royds Asylum, Underground and wards 15/3*

nice pictures been waiting for this report as we saw you on saturday .


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## zombola (Mar 19, 2008)

*Re: High Royds Asylum, Underground and wards 15/3*

you did? where abouts? We were stealthy as hell to begin with then there was just no point towards the end


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## boxerheaven (Mar 19, 2008)

*Re: High Royds Asylum, Underground and wards 15/3*

you must have just come out of linton house and were walking down towards barden and the front i was with another and four dogs said hello to you two


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## UrbanX (Mar 19, 2008)

*Re: High Royds Asylum, Underground and wards 15/3*

Absolutrly brilliant pics. Really different to any report I've seen on the Royds, what you do with light is stunning! Nice one!


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## zombola (Mar 19, 2008)

*Re: High Royds Asylum, Underground and wards 15/3*

thanks man, me and my handy torch.

defintely wasnt us you saw, Silverstealth was there at the same time though apparantly in the tunnels!, we didnt see him either


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## freebird (Mar 19, 2008)

*Re: High Royds Asylum, Underground and wards 15/3*

Really great report. The pics are fantastic! Makes me want to see the place even more now. Couldn't go with my other half when he went because of work!


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## zombola (Mar 20, 2008)

*Re: High Royds Asylum, Underground and wards 15/3*

get yourself down mate! ...before even more of it goes, theres only parts of the main building listed, the rest will go or be converted very soon. So much had changed since the last time i went in Nov. Im glad i got admin done before they started breeze blocking every inch of it, you can still get in the mortuary too.


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## no1rich (Mar 20, 2008)

*Re: High Royds Asylum, Underground and wards 15/3*

Zombola.
When you said about "Coffee Lill", are you on about a patient called Lillian Close!!!!

The coffee drinker

You heard of a patient called "Queeny"....


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## krela (Mar 20, 2008)

*Re: High Royds Asylum, Underground and wards 15/3*

Come on guys don't put patients details on the internet. It's not very fair.


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## no1rich (Mar 20, 2008)

*Re: High Royds Asylum, Underground and wards 15/3*

She's long long gone!


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## krela (Mar 20, 2008)

*Re: High Royds Asylum, Underground and wards 15/3*

That's not the point. Unless the name has already been published or you have explicit permission from the family please don't.


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## King Al (Mar 20, 2008)

*Re: High Royds Asylum, Underground and wards 15/3*

Fantastic Pics ZB, Excellent report as well, I love reading the captions between pics, thanks for taking the time


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## mr_bones (Mar 20, 2008)

I am quite impressed as this report offers a totally different take on High Royds to any other reports i have seen. That coupled with a good selection of photos, gets the thumbs up


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## Foxylady (Mar 20, 2008)

King Al said:


> ...I love reading the captions between pics, thanks for taking the time





mr_bones said:


> ...a totally different take on High Royds to any other reports i have seen.



Echo both of these comments. I almost missed this report...glad I didn't now!  Excellent pics and those service tunnels are great. Cheers.


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## zombola (Mar 23, 2008)

hi guys,
thanks for all the nice new comments, i do try to recreate my personal exploration with how i saw these areas.
In regards to patients, its true its not fair to write details, im not sure of the surname but i expect it is the very same


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