# Graylingwell Hospital



## Jondoe_264 (Jan 10, 2008)

Graylingwell Hospital had been a niggling thorn in my side from a shelved era of my exploration back catalogue for quite some time. I went through a period of concentrated hospital/asylum exploration between 2004 - 2005, seeing many fascinating buildings countrywide. Graylingwell was by no means the most elegant or architecturally lavish of the hospitals we had visited, yet we had returned to it on various occassions, why? At no point in the past four or five years had we, or anybody to my knowledge, been able to extensively explore Graylingwell's interiors. There had been a couple of occurences of folks being 'toured' around certain areas, explorers had accessed isolated rooms and outlying buildings, but security on site was and still is such that it defeats you in both the physical and mental realm.

So when it came to planning a further return trip recently, for me it was a trip focused initially on defeating the location and removing the thorn, the resulting benefit of being able to tread virgin exploration territory would be a plus. Not wanting to sound as if I'm doing the place a disservice, it is as significant as many of its contemporary asylums and as a result of being so well fortified it is in considerably better physical order.






Pic: me

I'd arranged to collect Dsankt and Zero from the local emo saturated train station to allow them to experience first hand the wonderment that is Horsham. Once they were collected we swung by Sainsburys for snacky supplies and headed down to Chichester. My resounding memory of Chichester was one of teenage misery, it having once been the locale where I heard uttered the dreaded words "It's not you, it's me", perhaps we were about to change that. As we turned off the public road and on to the hospital's driveway nothing appeared significantly changed since my last time here nigh on three years previous. We parked in such a spot as to not have the car draw any attention once we weren't present, got our minimal amount of kit together and headed out.





Pic: me

Drawing on the knowledge gained from hours of previous fruitless searching and scouring we were able to head straight towards a specific spot which we figured would herald more potential access options than anywhere else on the site. To go into great detail about access likely wouldn't be prudent, but suffice to say it involved traversing the site via some creative methods and searching out the rare chinks in Graylingwell's simple yet effective security measures. This wasn't a quick process, it was around two and a half hours since we had left the vanilla fragranced confines of the car before the three of us found ourselves stood in a musty, olive green corridor.





Pic: Dsankt

Once we were inside, my thoughts turned to my previous visits those few years ago. It dawned on me that Graylingwell had been as accessible during those early visits as it was now on this trip, Graylingwell hadn't changed, but I guess I had. In 2004 I wasn't quite so tenacious as I am now, and not quite so resourceful, it's nice to be able to recognise tangible change in my approach and exploration ability. Back in 2004 we had written Graylingwell off somewhat as a no-go, other explorers also tried, failed similarly and had it down as inaccessible. Consequently, over a relatively short period Graylingwell developed a legacy of being unexplorable and as a result all but dropped off the exploring radar, but for the occassional phantom blip. But now here we were, stood within its corridors ready for a day of exploring.





Pic: me

Tiresomely the security measures didn't stop at the exterior, we soon found that most of the internal doors were not only locked, but screwed closed with plates spanning the door and the frame thus rendering the corridor network useless as a means of accessing specific areas of the site. It was clear we were going to have a long day ahead, as to reach each place we were interested to see meant exiting and finding a new route in, even the subway system had received similar scrupulous attention and only offered us access to a few random places.





Pic: Dsankt





Pic: Zero

As our time at Graylingwell drew to a close we had been able to spend time in the Main Hall, the Projection Booth, the Kitchens, the Boiler House, various corridors, subways, a ward or two and the Patient's Bank. I hadn't taken a great deal of photographs but had enjoyed the day immensely and had a fuzzy warm glow about me knowing I'd pulled the thorn.





Pic: me 

JD


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## Reaperman (Jan 10, 2008)

Looking good, I know well what you mean about Graylingwell being an old Thorn, Its niggled at me since 2004 when I first took a wander abound the grounds. But as time went on it became much less of a priority as I developed my industrial tendancys and started to explore further afield.

It's great to see that you've finally been able to put your niggle to rest! and break some new ground with a very stubborn location.  good stuff.


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## snappel (Jan 10, 2008)

Maybe it's because locations like this dig down into the exploring instinct. If a place has been photographed to death, then it spoils the surprise a bit - you know what's round the corner. Although I can't account for half as many 'firsts' as I'd like, when I have it's been good to finally satisfy that innate curiosity.


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## Jondoe_264 (Jan 10, 2008)

Reaperman said:


> Looking good, I know well what you mean about Graylingwell being an old Thorn, Its niggled at me since 2004 when I first took a wander abound the grounds. But as time went on it became much less of a priority as I developed my industrial tendancys and started to explore further afield.
> 
> It's great to see that you've finally been able to put your niggle to rest! and break some new ground with a very stubborn location.  good stuff.



It was a similar scenario for myself, following that couple of years of exploring many a hospital I switch my energies back to my beloved drains and the Graylingwell issue wasn't something that was a constant annoyance, so much as a niggling undone thing. 

The trip came about after somebody suggested exploring a particularly frequented hospital location that day, and it ocurred to me why don't we go take a look at somewhere that's had rather less foot traffic.



snappel said:


> Maybe it's because locations like this dig down into the exploring instinct. If a place has been photographed to death, then it spoils the surprise a bit - you know what's round the corner. Although I can't account for half as many 'firsts' as I'd like, when I have it's been good to finally satisfy that innate curiosity.



Yeah, that likely contributed to the push to find a route in. Anticipation of the unknown is a great motivator 

JD


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## Foxylady (Jan 10, 2008)

Jondoe_264 said:


> Yeah, that likely contributed to the push to find a route in. Anticipation of the unknown is a great motivator



Oooh, I can so relate to that! 
Very interesting report, Jd and some very nice pics. The projector room looks inviting and full of goodies to look at. Love your pic of the four windows.

Cheers


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## robsey (Jan 14, 2008)

Good shots - but FYI it has been extensively explored (inc chapel and tower) by myself and Indy in December 2006. With permission.


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## Jondoe_264 (Jan 14, 2008)

Robsey said:


> but FYI it has been extensively explored (inc chapel and tower) by myself and Indy in December 2006. With permission.



That's cool man. I wasn't aware of your visit in 2006, thanks for the info, congratulations on arranging a permitted visit, it must have been very exciting. The purpose of my trip was a more personal one.



Jondoe_264 said:


> So when it came to planning a further return trip recently, for me it was a trip focused initially on defeating the location and removing the thorn . . .



If I'd have been offered the opportunity to free roam the site with permission I wouldn't have been interested to do so, that wasn't _why_ I was going. I wasn't going there with a special interest to see Graylingwell's interiors or to explore as yet unchartered territory, as I said in my original post that would just be a plus. I went to scratch an old itch, which I did. 

Cheers, 

JD


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## robsey (Jan 14, 2008)

Wasn't really arranged as such, more luck and good timing. But cheers anyway.


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## Reaperman (Jan 14, 2008)

Posts Removed, Theres no need do air petty differences here.

Alias, Robsey Do it via PM or do it elsewhere just dont expect us to read it.

Thanks.


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## Zero (Jan 15, 2008)

Nice report dude nice write up.



robsey said:


> Good shots - but FYI it has been extensively explored (inc chapel and tower) by myself and Indy in December 2006. With permission.



I dont think you can explore something if your given permission. You used the wrong word. More you got to see it.


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## dsankt (Jan 26, 2008)

Never realised you posted this up JD, glad you finally got to the scratching you needed, happy I could be there. To be honest if we'd had permission I likely wouldn't have bothered going. It'll take more than tourists to deflate the ego of the parachuting juggernaut. What a silly notion!

Again, nice writeup man I dig the personal touch. It's more engaging than: we did this, then that, then this then that, then then then...


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## Flinders (Aug 28, 2008)

Hey Jondoe, Just wondered if there is a way I can contact you to discuss Graylingwell. am fascinated by it!
Send me a message if poss.
Thanks


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