June 2008
This was by the very back of the site, by what I believe was referred to as the "Works Office"
We proceeded past the Mortuary, taking in what is left.
It has had a strip, and only the slabs remain. the EP guards believe that they will be sold on, which is feasible, as all the other sinks have been smashed and placed on the Slabs.
The Body Fridges have been destroyed, along with all the tables/ Mortuary paraphenalia that was there before.
Now, it is just a room with two slabs in.
As you can see, the doorway arches have also been smashed out. I can't see any use being made of the wood or the fridge materials. Next stop, the skip.
Walking through the Yard, I looked up at the Tower. I'd been given information about access to the tower in the previous week, but it would have to wait this week.
Despite the overcast early morning we'd had, suggesting a grey day, we were in for some beautiful skies. No time to stop though, for the Laundry awaited.
The Laundry looked tidier to me this time, and there was a scaffolding frame on wheels in there too. The Laundry will probably follow the same route as the Mortuary, I suspect it won't see the start of August, and that's if it's lucky.
We entered the main complex by the Top to Toe Boutique.
The corridor on the left takes you past the kitchens, towards the female side, and the corridor on the right takes you to the Hairdressers and the corridor up to Mapother ward. Both are in very poor condition, both are irretrievably decayed.
As was pointed out to me by a guard on Thursday, if the Palisade fence and last 6 years of security measures had been implemented in 1991 when the Hospital closed, there wouldn't have been the level of vandalism and arson that is present. HOWEVER, 17 years of rain, high winds, neglect and rot will take their toll, and that is what has happened here.
Neglect at Cane Hill is not about a lack of maintenance of the facilities, it is a lack of initiative of how to use the site, and a lack of attention paid to security in the first 10 years of closure, and the more significant lack of anybody influential that actually CARES.
We followed the corridor on the left, as we had arranged to meet Site, Midnight, Paulo and Payno at Browning/Blake.
Names of local or national figures at the time of the Hospitals opening have retained their importance, however Browning and Blake's 18th century meanings have little bearing on Cane Hill's visitors today. Browning/Blake means "The ward with the beds", Vincent/Vanburgh means "the burnt out ward", and Lidgett/Lettsom means "The ward with the pool table", such is the draw of Cane Hill. We're losing an Urbex Mecca over the next year. I'm sad about it. Severalls, Whittingham and Denbigh etc have their merits, but Cane Hill is a crown jewel.
The dayroom of Browning/Blake has a Christmas tree from it, the ward closed at the end of 1991. There is a blank 1992 diary in an office of this room. It looks like the staff just walked up and left when the last patient was discharged into the community. Through lack of care, the place stayed uncleared, a time capsule of interned Psychiatric care at a time of great change, impregnated only with energy drink cans and crisp packets from it's various extra-curricular visitors.
I'm not going to pretend that you've not seen anything like this before. Cane Hill is a prime tourist attraction of our ever growing subculture. Half of you may even have taken the same photograph from the same position.
Saturation.
'This is your life'
When I last visited in February, this scene was misty. Aside from that, it's identical. At Cane Hill, Time stands still. it's still 1991 here.
Cane Hill retains it's identity as a Hospital/Asylum and features in the local press when anything of note happens. But ask anybody 'normal' what Cane Hill is/was, and 99% won't be able to tell you. When the last brick is cleared, the Squibbs team sign off and go home, all that will be left is the admin block, Chapel, and an unspectacular water tower retained only for it's usefullness with broadcasting aerials, It's identity will be watered down as the brownfield site finds another use. Nobody will want to know it's past. Cane Hill will fade away in the memory of the locals, it's importance reducing.
Paperwork like this will mean nothing.
Andrews/Alleyn ward would once have been home to maybe 100 people. Bustling. The cells at the end of the room have been empty for 17 years. So has the Dormitory. Can you think of the what has happened in the last 17 years? It's a long time.
Somebody would have woken up to this view from their cell. For 40 years maybe? 17 years doesn't seem so long now.
We entered the Staff rest Room. Some bright spark had removed a 'Dalek' from the hairdressers. Add this to the Mannequin that has been taken from the Boutique, the Mortuary trolley taken from the mortuary (and put in Keller, and you could potentially be very confused.
This is the post office.
This WAS the post office. It will never see post again. Time moves, places change. Now it's just a room.
The Staff Cafeteria is being reclaimed by nature. Seeds will have come through the broken windows in the roof, and if left long enough, they would be taken over. A reminder that although the human race may be powerful, We play second fiddle to nature.
This ward is Donne. Donne was the dean of St Pauls, once upon a time. Imagine the furore if it was said that St Pauls' was being demolished?
The only residents here are two pigeons, who fly between the light fixtures. The make lots of noise. The rooms are bare. The staff here obviously cleared it out properly.
At the back of Ellis Ward, there was an exhibition from the "Positive Futures Programme". When the Hospital shut, people that had lived there all their life were put into 'The Community'. What about their community, that existed between Brighton Road and Portnalls road, between the walls of CH Howell's Buildings?
The Art Room awaited. Piles and piles of art were stacked all over the room. The hordes of explorers from the last 17 years, no doubt growing exponentially, have claimed goodies, leaving the top of the pile dated 1970.
If you visit this room, you will recognise names from this site and other popular Urbex forums.
Art Therapy was used by Psychologists to get patients thinking, and also to tap into their thoughts. Some work's is obvious, others less so. I'll let you be the judge of a personal selection of interesting pieces. Destined for the skip.
"Intensity of Judgement
Attacked on a hot summery Day
Stiffling uncomfort only
Numbed with prickly Sensations"
This would have been somebody's workplace.
When this was built, it would have been carefully maintained. Now it is unruly, Ellis Ward framed by weeds.
At this point, we could hear the days theme sound, the sound of Machinery, moving closer. We took refuge in King/Keats/Keller, spending most of the time sitting by the window as a security van sat facing the ward end.
Somebody would have bathed next to a stranger.
The Geriatric wards used to be nearest the Mortuary, Patients shuffled around to the back wards so the Mortician had less to travel with the deceased.
The Nurses accomodation block was closed before the rest of the hospital.
I believe that this is the back of Lidgett Lettsom.
At this point we left together, having traversed the whole of the Female Side. Squibbs were working by the Male Side, and it was suspect to go there.
Enjoy coming back in.
I went back 2 days after the last trip... It's an addiction....
