# Deva Hospital and Asylum, Chester April/May 2009 (pic heavy)



## Big Dex (May 12, 2009)

Hi all; First report, so I hope it ticks all your boxes!

Cheshire County Lunatic Asylum was opened in 1829 on a site in Liverpool Road. The original building, which housed 90 patients, was designed by William Cole, junior, county architect, and was erected under the direction of the county magistrates. 
In 1855, the first of a number of name changes occurred when the asylum became Cheshire Lunatic Asylum and in 1870, it became Chester County Lunatic Asylum. In 1889, Cheshire County Council became responsible for the asylum and in 1899 the original name, Cheshire County Lunatic Asylum, was restored. 

The early years- of the 20th century saw significant advances in the treatment of, as well as changing attitudes towards, mental illness. These were reflected in developments at the asylum. A new pathology laboratory was opened and in 1914, an annex. was built. This annex is currently being demolished peice by peice, as you can see in the pictures below. In 1921, the name asylum' was dropped and the name, County Mental Hospital, was adopted. 

In 1948 the National Health Service took over the running of the hospital from Cheshire County Council and it was renamed Upton Mental Hospital. In the early 1950s it became Deva Hospital. Following the amalgamation of Chester and District Hospital Management Committee and Deva Hospital Management Committee in 1965, it was renamed the West Cheshire Hospital. 

During the 1950s, there were important changes in the treatment of psychiatric illnesses, involving the use of new drugs and in consequence the number of in—patients was drastically reduced. By the 1980s, less than 4% of the patients were compelled to remain in hospital. 

In 1983,- a new general hospital and an accident unit were opened on the West Cheshire Hospital site and following the visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales on 30 May 1984, the present name, Countess of Chester Hospital, was acquired. 
​
*Firstly, I honestly believe that a quick note on asbestos is required here. If you are viewing this as research before a trip of your own, then for your own good, pay heed to this: I am qualified and knowledgeable in this subject. Asbestos causes Mesothelioma, which is a truly horrible way to die, albeit 25 years after exposure. Both the annex and the asylum are saturated with broken asbestos. The contractors are currently removing asbestos from the annex before they can demolish it, and you can see that they have taped and sealed the windows to contain the asbestos dust within the building. Look at this picture:





Those white tubes and the dust on the floor you see is 100% asbestos used to insulate the pipes around the hospital, and (presumably) pikeys have ripped it off to get the scrap metal. There is broken asbestos and asbestos dust all over this site. In an ideal world, anybody entering here would wear a fully hooded paper suit, overshoes, gloves and a full face P3 respirator, and then bag and safely dispose of them. What you choose to wear is up to you.*

I visited on 2 different occasions; Firstly exploring the annex which was being demolished almost as I watched, and secondly the asylum itself. No issues were encountered on either trip. So; to the photographs!

*The Annex*
































*The Asylum*





























































If HDR offends you, sorry!


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## james.s (May 12, 2009)

You are obviously not new to this 
Nice pictures, I like those HDRs, shame it's being knocked down


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## Urban Mole (May 12, 2009)

Seems you did tick all the right boxes 

Great report and nice pictures, thanks.


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## Big Dex (May 12, 2009)

james.s said:


> You are obviously not new to this
> Nice pictures, I like those HDRs, shame it's being knocked down



I'm new to urban exploration!

(IMHO) HDR seems to lend itself very well to this sort of scene. People slate it for looking false, and then post black and white images 

Each to their own, and thanks for your comments James.


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## Big Dex (May 12, 2009)

Urban Mole said:


> Seems you did tick all the right boxes
> 
> Great report and nice pictures, thanks.



And thank you.


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## klempner69 (May 12, 2009)

Great set of pics and for me,the HDR wasnt over the top as some folk put up.Well done


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## james.s (May 12, 2009)

> I'm new to urban exploration!


Not new to photography then


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## verdant (May 12, 2009)

Nice pics.

Any idea what the yellow/black stripey room is about? Is it a torture chamber? It's like something out of a bad dream.


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## TuningHouse (May 12, 2009)

Amazing - would love to see this


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## havoc (May 12, 2009)

verdant said:


> Nice pics.
> 
> Any idea what the yellow/black stripey room is about? Is it a torture chamber? It's like something out of a bad dream.



It was an part of an art exhibition apparently.


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## Lightbuoy (May 12, 2009)

Crackin' first report matey. Well thought out too! 

Thanks also for the asbestos warning -never any harm in being reminded of the dangers from time-to-time.

Welcome to DP by the way!


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## hopskotch (Dec 8, 2009)

does anyone know if it's still possible to see this place? I live pretty near and travel past the hospital almost every day but never think to look if the asylum is still standing, but would love to pay a visit and explore for myself.


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## mexico75 (Dec 8, 2009)

I may be wrong, but I think you've missed the boat on this one


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## Indy500 (Dec 27, 2009)

The last time I went was in October and the entire annexe, morgue etc and the bottom half of the site were gone. There's been some new houses built on the site of the hexagonal admin building (the 'new' one) and the original administration building (which used to house the old 'safe' and medical records and the lovely oak staircase) is gone too. The diggers were just about to smash down the 'laundry' loft room (where there was a completely authentic, sealed off victorian toilet and bathroom) and some bastard had been into the medical supplies room under the labs and thrown all the 50s. 60s and 70s letters and papers everywhere and smashed all the poison bottles _and_ they'd been into the attic at the top of the labs and had removed/salvaged/nicked/stolen/thieved all the equipment. 

She's in a sad and sorry state. I would think that the labs have either very recently gone or will go very shortly - you could see the diggers only had to go through the loft room to get to the labs. 

All of the hallways are taped off like a scene out of E.T. and I imagine that the workers wandering them wear equipment like NASA engineers! They don't do this for a merry jape, so please take notice of the asbestos warnings. 

I'll get my shit together and do an across-a-number-of-visits report on Deva soon. If you want to go there is a little left. Go while you can. I imagine that they will flatten ALL of this site eventually. The tower could be taken down brick by brick and rebuilt in my back garden as far as I'm concerned but is not such a 'keeper' as some we have seen. There are no workshop buildings around the chimney that would warrant saving the chimney itself as there were far better buildings on site that have been demolished. If they keep these features, I will be both delighted and surprised in equal measure.


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## Neosea (Dec 27, 2009)

Nice update Indy500


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