Cane Hill Asylum - March 2009

Somehow, in spite of how far demolition has gone, I still felt an overwhelming urge to go back to Cane Hill. There is just something about it that just keeps drawing me back. I know everyone knows what's in Cane Hill by now, but I thought people might still be interested to see how demolition is getting on. My first visit to Cane Hill was in November 2008, which as you know was after demolition had begun. At that point, almost all the buildings apart from the U-shaped row of wards had been demolished. I don't know what they were doing for the next few months, but when I returned in December they still didn't seem to have got rid of much more. Now, however, Squibbs and Davies have really turned up the heat, so to speak. One ward has totally disappeared in under a month, and several others are now majorly incomplete. In spite of the ongoing demolition work, I always insisted that Cane Hill was still worth seeing for the splendid Victorian architecture and decay that awaits. It still is, but not for long at all, I'll wager.

A bleak view from the window of Browning/Blake - as yet untouched by demolition workers.



Compare with Febuary:




Someone's still happy:

You could walk right through this corridor a month ago:


That hole wasn't there last time...



I am surprised that you could even still sell these, as many of them have rotted, but they are being removed so I presume that is what is happening.

The toilet with no floor. I don't quite understand what happened in this room.

None of this area had been cleared just last month. You'll notice that demolition has stopped at the lift shaft; foolishly, when the building was vacated the lift was left on the third story. I wonder how they'll get it down now?


Upstairs/Downstairs


Finally, we headed for the water tower. This had previously been sealed, but work has been taking place inside and we found an entrance.


From the roof:


There's an exciting feeling just being up here. When demolition work is finished, and the site will be left as a wasteland for ages - as it surely will be - I might pop back and see if the water tower is still accessable. It would be a nice place for a picnic.




In spite of how long demolition has taken to get to the main wards, from this visit I finally realised that this is the end for the old girl. At the current speed, within weeks work will be completed - this beautiful example of Victorian excellence swept away for "affordable" housing. At last, the bulldozer has won.



All right, so it's not a bulldozer - you get the idea.

I remember 'visiting' a little nurse here back in '81, had to sneak into the nurses home,
funnily enough ,I did the same at the Nuffield ( Oxford) in 1979,ah memories.

I found a picture of one of the nurses in the nurses' block before it was demolished. That's completely gone now though. Nothing at all left. It's surreal in a way, isn't it?

How do these people sleep at night, knowing what they have done to such a piece of history? You could understand if this happened in the sixties, but now, surely not. Who can afford a house anyway?

LiamCH said:

I found a picture of one of the nurses in the nurses' block before it was demolished. That's completely gone now though. Nothing at all left. It's surreal in a way, isn't it?

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Surreal and a touch spooky my friend, would have liked to have seen it though.

I wonder why they didn't save Cane Hill and convert into offices, would surely be better than the crappy little houses that are likely to be built on the site.

Shirt and tie on an urbex? good idea - no way of being mistaken for a chav or vandal.
I'm usually in a fluorescent jacket, nobody asks any questions !

Trudger said:

I wonder why they didn't save Cane Hill and convert into offices, would surely be better than the crappy little houses that are likely to be built on the site.

Shirt and tie on an urbex? good idea - no way of being mistaken for a chav or vandal.
I'm usually in a fluorescent jacket, nobody asks any questions !

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there's always room for an English eccentric , nothing wrong with that.
He should be applauded for his sartorial decision
completely agree Trudger

I am still truly stunned that the developers paid for demo to start. (But lets come to terms here, it was going to happen sooner or later, it has been derelict for long enough now.)

When building will not start for a very long while.


I know what you mean, it is surreal to be there one day, and see so much.


To return weeks later to find the majority gone.




As for Squibb sleeping at night, im sure they sleep fine. They're just doing their jobs, right.

much that Cane Hill inspires , the simple fact is the buildings although stunning in their architecture are riddled with dry rot, wet rot, fungus, fire damage and just about every other form of deterioration known to man.
The cost of putting this right and then converting a building that was designed as a hospital into housing use would simply not be viable.
The layout is all wrong for a housing development, as the buildings are too close together and interlinked.
It is a shame, but at the end of the day, they are out to make a profit , and re using the existing buildings on that site would not do that for them.
As a token gesture they intend to convert admin and retain the church, and its looking likely they will re use the water tower.
17 years of sitting derelict is a very long time , especially when most of the buildings were most likely rotton when they closed the place.
It will be interesting to see what will happen there in the future on such a historical and much talked about site.

THE ODEON

Seeing demolition in progress like this makes you (or me, at least) realise just how valuable the photographic records that people make of these places really are. Eventually most of these beautiful and historic buildings will just be mounds of timber and brick dust, and all we'll have left are these images.

Amazing explore, and amazing photos! I wish I could have seen it before it was demolished


Best dressed urbexer 09? I think so! Very cool!

LiamCH said:

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Great photos -backed-up with a good descriptive write-up.

Spiffingly good work ol' bean!

Excellent update Liam, I am glad you managed to even get around the site - as its very open by the looks of things.

Thankyou for sharing.

Great Pic's! Not sure I'd want to revisit somewhere I'd explored as it was being destroid, but I suppose it does open areas up!

Dr Who

NobodyGirl said:

Amazing explore, and amazing photos! I wish I could have seen it before it was demolished


Best dressed urbexer 09? I think so! Very cool!

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Liam,I have said before,you look like a time traveller,so why not put yourself forward to play the next Dr Who?...just a thought,oh and very good pics too..thanx for the update.

Stu

the nurses block has gone? i was there when i went about a month ago. from your pic at the top of the water tower it has changes so much within 1 month.

shame on them.

I believe Liam was referring to this much more modern Nurses block which incorporated a hostel and some basic leisure facilities.



Can't really fault the demolition company as they are doing a very professional job - and salvaging an awful lot from the site, but certainly shame on the hill's many owners who let the place get into the state it was in. Even the current owners should be heavily criticised for making the rash decision to flatten as much as they have.

It's all very well taking a cynical approach to this redevelopment, but I think people need to be a bit more informed about how we have arrived at the current situation.

It all stems from the constant re-structuring of the NHS in the late-1980s and ealry-1990s. Cane Hill closed at a time of great NHS reorganisation; had it closed 2 years earlier; it would have been in one box, had it closed 2 years later; it would have been in a different box; but it closed exactly at the time of confusion, and therefore it ended up as part of the residue of the South East Regional Health Board. Meaning that it actually went into a draw in Whitehall; so it didn’t belong to the Primary Care Trust, Lambeth & Maudsley Trust only had an interest in one building with 25 patients in it, and the rest of the site was left derelict. Making it ideal for SAS practice, vandalism, arson, and of course photography; and nothing really ever happened to it. Several Science Park and MSU expansion applications later and we have the first real development on Cane Hill.

It's understandable that many will romanticise about Cane Hill as that empty space you could escape to and get lost in of a weekend, but the fact is Coulsdon needs this development. If one looks at statistics concerning A1 retail in the area, the decline of Coulsdon Town Centre does actually match quite nicely with the closure of Cane Hill (as well as other factors such as Tescos at Purley, and more general factors such as increased mobility, the internet etc. etc.)

English Partnerships (now 're-organised' (there's that word again!) into the Homes & Communities Agency) did undertake extensive surveys of the entire site shortly after adding it to their Hospital Sites Programme portfolio. However as many can testify the place is one big asbestos breeding ground. And even if you 'overlook' that, the radiating pavillion design that C.H. Howell used to squeeze as much floor-space into what is after all a 'hill', breaks every building standard in the context of converting to commercial or residential e.g. poor natural light, dimensions too narrow; it just wouldn't be practical both health & safety-wise or economically. Add the structural integrity of many of the buildings to the mix and it all makes best sense to demo and start over. Of course the Admin Block, Chapel, and Water Tower are being retained, which to many on here probably seems a tad tokenisitc.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that it's not a waste to do something productive and vitally important to the regeneration of Coulsdon. If anything we're lucky to have that. Coulsdon has a very big preservationist lobby, and a viable option for many years was the old favourite - 'the do nothing' approach, as many saw it as critical to preserve the virgin greenbelt upon which Cane Hill is found (another reason development has taken 17 years).

This by no means a rant, it is simply an alternative viewpoint. I have gradually noticed more and more lamenting the destruction of Cane Hill. It will be greatly missed, I myself enjoyed exploring its empty wards and corridors, but I just think it needs to be appreciated that the future is of greater priority than the past (in this case that is, before I have the archictecture lobby on my back) to those that actually live here. Sure it's just another housing development being proposed, but Coulsdon has a catchment area of only 26,000 people, and if Cane Hill can potentially bring in 3000 more people - it becomes vitally important for Coulsdon's survival.

I should also stress that there will be a major presence on site even after demolition has been completed. HCA are working to a long-term program that they estimate to take a further 15-20 years before the first new residents arrive, at which point we shall be in the next economic cycle (if you believe in Kondratieff Waves!)

Just a final point about the Water Tower - it's future is still a tad hazy unfortunately, though HCA claim to be committed to finding a use for it. Yet its removal would anger the majority of Coulsdon residents due to its prominence on what skyline there is here! However in the meantime I have noticed that members from Squibb have actually posted warnings on other UE sites about accessing the structure due to the questionable structural integrity and abundance of asbestos within the building.