# Stone House Hospital, Dartford, Kent Feb 2012



## prettyvacant71

_He’s a brief history as this place has been explored many times, so i hope im not boring you all! so here's my little contribution...._

The City of London Lunatic Asylum, by 1924 renamed the City of London Mental Hospital and finally changing its name to Stone House Hospital in 1948 when it was taken over by the newly formed NHS, was a 140 acre site founded as a treatment facility for up to 220 of London’s pauper lunatics. As with most asylums of their time, it was a self sufficient community which included a working farm, chapel, a separate hospital wing for infectious diseases and a cemetery.
Costing £65,000 to build between 1862 and 1866 it was designed by James Bunstone Bunning. With its unusual turreted water tower and many arched windows and internal archways in the Tudor Revival / Gothic style of architecture, it has thankfully survived the demolition route and is currently being redeveloped into luxury flats.
A Thames Healthcare assessment undertaken in 1998 decided it was not suited for modern healthcare, so by 2003 the West Kent NHS initiated its closure. It finally closed its doors in 2007.

Unfortunatly I didn't manage to get many shots from the outside of the buildings as i would have been seen straight away as security are on the ball 








Great architectural details on the gothic water tower

























Just love these curvy corridors. Pinks and purples are often used in physiatric establishments as psychological studies suggest they are calming colours....if that failed they may jack you up with largactil (administered with a glass syringe, guess it would melt through a plastic one!)or a frontal lobotomy to remove the offending article.







When you find personal stuff left behind you can’t help wondering what’s happened to them now...














I just put this pic in to compare it with the following one, just a few seconds later. I think it’s amazing the different atmosphere that created when the sun comes out, (or goes in) so i was lucky here (which aint normally like me) as the sun was poppin in and out behind the clouds and usually hid when my camera was out. Ive been known to wait “far too long than normal!” for a long shadow...but they are often worth the wait



















I bet that little peep hole in the door has seen a few disturbing things. The most recent one of me tryin to take the dam photo...me tripods a good foot and a half too short so i spent about 15 mins searching for bits and pieces to shove under the legs, it looked like sum weird abstract piece of shite that wud be more at home in one of saatchi’s gaffs








Is it the same person that goes around opening all the doors in all the hospitals??? Cause you do a good job if its one of you out there!!! Severals, West Park, Harold wood and st.peters mortuaries are also ones that spring to mind that have had the treatment!






































I let myself down a bit, i didn’t go up the ladder...a mate had a pretty bad fall from one of these and still walks with a little limp! He was on his own and said if someone had been there to keep it still it “may” not have happened...mind you that is the same guy that walks on bits of ply wood that looks like they are gona collapse if a heavy pigeon sat on it.... ive had the odd bit of damage myself so i try to minimise it a little more these days by not doin silly things wen im on my own, well actually, it probably depends wot kinda mood im in really!







That door spook i mentioned earlier also puts chairs in good places too???
































Hmmm...sounds kinda nice in a way!?! the one above not below!














Sec in protective mode and being a bit over the top....i was just grabbin a quick shot as he chucked me out, the building looked great in the late sun. He ran back and done a Jackie Chan styleee chop to try and “shield” the building. I actually think they are doing alien autopsies and storing spent plutonium that al Qaeda are buying on eBay disguised as fishing rods , cause it was a far too unnatural reaction to simply takin a photo of a building....i shall have to look into this conspiracy, ok maybe i can’t be arsed 







Yeah sadly he did go over the top...i think he wanted to be a copper but failed the “i can bulshit on the spot” theory test, he was a little excessive shall we say...i mean he even spoke phonetically on the phone to the old bill. When the copper turned up he thought it was funny when the guy said he had taken a risk assessment and decided it wasn’t necessary to send the dogs in....i could only quietly sigh and shake my head...







This is how it should be done?!?....by a decent dude with a lovely sheppard, no rambo attitude! i bumped into these fellow explorers who had only just arrived so i felt really bad for them as they had travelled from Brighton and only just walked around the corner and straight into me being shown out...so it’s not just me that gets all the bad luck then!! 

Thanks for lookin folks!


----------



## UE-OMJ

That looks in better condition than when I was there, was that very recent or a few weeks ago.

Edit - Should learn to read properly, it says in your title 'Feb'


----------



## urban phantom

great report mate lovin the drama the building looks great thanks for sharing


----------



## Mars Lander

Loving your pictures and spesh report , good on ya for still snapping despite mr meanie , its really wetting my appetite to get to this place and its gonna be a looooooooong drive


----------



## Urban Ghost

I wouldn't bother mate, the builders are in most of it now (treat it as a live site) there is scaffolding laying around everywhere inside plus site lights on the walls. It's pretty much stripped and big bits demo'd already.


----------



## SeffyboyUK

Nice report and pics mate. We had a close call with secca when we were there, surprised he didn't hear us getting in it was so close!


----------



## flyboys90

Great report,if only walls could talk!!


----------



## Sshhhh...

Love it! Looks like my kind of place,definatley on my must do list. Shame about the barmpot security man, he prob be camoed up and waiting when we get there!


----------



## flyboys90

Sshhhh... said:


> Love it! Looks like my kind of place,definatley on my must do list. Shame about the barmpot security man, he prob be camoed up and waiting when we get there!



Take him a couple of cans as a bribe,Stella is always a winner!!


----------



## Ninja Kitten

cracking photos..love this place so glad i got to do it when it was quite quiet, and with out the interuptions too!


----------



## onthebusescrazy

Great Find And Brillant photos thank you


----------



## daimo_45

hahaha, good old sec! They saw me walking along the top corridor of the main building and had a crack of coming in a catching me but to no avail! The pigeons go mental when you entered to hall with the pianos in?


----------



## prettyvacant71

UE-OMJ said:


> That looks in better condition than when I was there, was that very recent or a few weeks ago.
> 
> Edit - Should learn to read properly, it says in your title 'Feb'



wot u mean i shud learn to read properly.....outside noooow!!! Yeah it was end of feb wen i was in there...did you move them chairs then


----------



## prettyvacant71

Thanks everyone ur all so nice!!!


----------



## h4sty

hahaha quality, thats me getting escorted out in the bottom picture. literally had been there 5 min!


----------



## TeeJF

Pic 1 just does it for me! That secca wasn't doing a Jackie Chan, he's a Nazi sympathiser and he was letting go his arm in "the salute"! *simples! 

When we did the place we were really p*ssed because workmen rolled up at 8 AM on a Sunday FFS!!! Still at least we got to see some of it I suppose. Well done you!


----------



## stufer

great stuff - i lived in ~D'ford for a few years and was dying to get a glimpse inside the place. cheers


----------

