County asylums - where did they all go???

[TeeJF]

I'm "collecting" asylums, in the main for the fantastic architecture, but I have found very few worth the effort of visiting now. They're either long gone, or you rock up and dodge the demo ball in a frantic bid to snap anything worthwhile. It seems like the best time to have caught these places on camera was mid noughties.

I have tried to get hold of some interesting reading on these places too but have drawn a blank apart from the odd website. I was hoping to get my teeth into a good book however the best I've managed a so far was an interesting read called, "The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases From A State Hospital Attic" ISBN: 978-1-934137-14-7. Briefly they found an attic room full of stock piled suitcases with former patients belongings and from these they have pieced together case studies of certain patients lives. Fascinating stuff but sod all in the way of pictures of the asylums, and it's American too. I'd recommend it if asylums are your bag but only as a study of how patients lived in the American asylum system.

Does anyone know what happened to Cane Hill? that had the most appealing exterior of any I have seen. I checked it out on Google Earth today and in 2009 it looked like it was practically all gone. I assume it's a green field site now or yet another mindlessly depressing housing estate full of ticky tacky boxes. Lula did a great report recently on a south London asylum near Epsom (West Park?) and it showed that there's nigh on nothing left there now too. Redevelopment seems to be the main driving force behind the demo of these sites, understandably so, and yet there also seems to be a lot of instances where they have begun work and then it has ground to a halt again, presumably for want of funding. Then the "mystery fires" begin like at Cane Hill and Denbigh, or the roofs open up and the weather rots everything to the point where, like at Denbigh now, work is ordered to be carried out just to maintain the Graded Listing status quo.

So... what's still standing?

We've got:

Whittingham - largely intact still.
Highroyds - very little left though it seems they're doing a thoughtful job of the main building as flats.
Stanley Royds in Wakefield - just a boarded up chapel now. What happened to the main buildings?
Cherry Knowle - dropping at a frightening speed, what's planned there?
St. Mary's at Stannington - not much more than an empty shell now, what's planned there?
Denbigh - a wet and rotten nightmare being put into "stasis" at this time though it looks more like massive demo.
Pool Park - open to the elements now and rotting rapidly.
Talgarth - like Denbigh?
Greylingwell - unknown to me!
St. Georges Morpeth - unknown to me!
Prestwich - nothing left of the orginal hospital but the site is occupied with new buildings and a monstrous supermarket.
West Park - going, going... etc.

Considering there were in excess of a hundred big asylums at one point, what happened to them all? I have always been staggered too at how difficult it can be to actually see these buildings in so much as they are almost always so deeply esconced in the countryside you can't even see them from a main road. Whittingham is a prime example of that but Denbigh is a polar opposite and can be seen for miles around.

So which is the odd one out?

And if anyone knows a decent book on asylums please point me at it.

 

[krela]

Have you never come across the county asylums website before? I think you might find it interesting...

 

[night crawler]

Well Fairmile is still standing that I do know and Littlemore uderwent a development a number of years ago but the main building still stands. I have been meaning to go a photograph the local hospitals to me that hav eundergon develpopment. Can't help you with the book though.

 

[mookster]

Most of them were demolished as rarely were any buildings listed.

Talgarth - Still there, no plans to demolish it as of yet although the corridors are demolished.
Graylingwell - being demolished/converted
St. Georges Morpeth - still there, boarded up pretty tight.

To add to the list:

Severalls - still there, the bypass slip road has been given the go ahead though so who knows how much longer it has left
St. Crispins, Northampton - mostly demolished, whats left is being converted
St. Lawrence, Bodmin - still there, sealed tight, demolition starting.
Rauceby, Lincoln - mostly demolished, what's left is stripped out
St. John's, Lincoln - partly demoed/converted
Fairmile, Oxfordshire - stripped ready for conversion
Runwell, Essex - still there, no plans for demolition as of yet
Warley, Essex - being converted
Stone House, Dartford - still there but demolition gettting under way apparently
Harperbury, Hertfordshire - demolished except a few wards, padded cells still intact
St. Augustines, Chartham - same as Harperbury minus padded cells
Aston Hall, Derby - still there
St. George's, Stafford - Still there but pretty much a burnt out shell
Springfield, Tooting - One ward derelict the rest still in use
Goodmayes, West Ham - currently in the process of closing. Not doable (yet!)

 

[oldscrote]

Roundway asylum in Devizes[the Wiltshire County asylum] mostly survives albeit as private housing.There is a very good book on the asylum called 'Down pans lane' other books on asylums here....

http://www.countyasylums.com/books.html

 

[uklimey1234]

County Asylum - still in use

> So... what's still standing?

St Lukes in Middlesbrough previously known as the Midlesbrough Borough Asylum is not only still standing its still in use as a Mental Health facility although there are plans to replace it with a more modern building

 

[Cuban B.]

They've nearly all been demolished, with the odd one still in use and some others that've been converted.

Whittingham - St. Luke's is standing in a badly pikeyed state and Cameron House is burnt out.
Highroyds - Mainly still there but they've demolished some more corridors recently.
Stanley Royds in Wakefield - Half the original block was converted and they've done a good job.
Cherry Knowle - dropping at a frightening speed, what's planned there? Tesco maybe
St. Mary's at Stannington - not much more than an empty shell now, what's planned there? Part converion and new village.
Denbigh - I think the remediation work will strip it to the bone.
Pool Park - open to the elements now and rotting rapidly.
Talgarth - like Denbigh? Buggered at least as bad as Denbigh I believe.
Greylingwell - Partly demo'd mainly still standing derelict.
St. Georges Morpeth - Still standing.
Prestwich - Never heard of it.
West Park - going, going... etc.


St. John's - Empty and derelict.
Stonehouse - Ditto.
Fairmile - Ditto.
Severalls - Ditto.
St. Andrew's - Annexe is still standing and derelict.
Lancaster Moor - Ditto.
St. George's (Stafford) - Knackered and fire damaged.

That's a lot that's gone in even the past few years, I think most of us got into this asylum game too late.

 

[Pincheck]

As others have said most have been demolished seen quite a few like Cane hill before it went but others not so lucky with, Just the nature of things. Can't see everything and no point worrying about it yes its regrettable but best to see what other Gems have perhaps not out there yet, as it tends to go in cycles from what me and others have noticed

 

[jabdc5]

Winterton near Sedgefield in Co Durham was a huge mental facility, last time I was up there some of the old hospital was still in use as day wards whereas new housing was appearing on other parts of the site. That was a few years back, I really don't know what the position is there now.
J

 

[Em_Ux]

It is such shame they're all disappearing.

As far as i'm aware St Andrews in Norwich is still standing derelict.

 

[UrbanX]

St Andrews in Norwich is standing and do able. I have a report on here.

Little plumstead is standing and is magnificent.

Fulbourn in standing, and has been carefully converted to offices.

Oh 'Madness in it's place' is an excellent book, patient accounts from sevs. Although is v expensive.

 

[Goldie87]

Tbh most of the lists here are just the well known places on the urbex 'tourist trail', there were many other places out there in various states. Don't believe everything you read on the net, I can think of a few places years ago people claimed were demolished and were not. If you really want to record these places the only thing you can do is do some research and get out there for a look.

 

[TeeJF]

Have you never come across the county asylums website before? I think you might find it interesting...

Mmmmm! Velly interesting! Thanks!

 

[audi-adam]

exminster hospital, exeter, is still standing and in good condition , only downside is its now posh flats,

digby asylum,exeter, the clock tower and admin block are still there, extremely posh flats with a militant residents only parking attitude,

tonevale, taunton, is now a village called cotford st luke the chapel and clock tower and admin are still standing and being lived in

 

[Cuban B.]

Another couple of derelict asylums are Barrow Gurney, which is partly demo'd and badly pikeyed, and Stallington Hall, which is just a ruined admin.

 

[mookster]

Barrow Gurney was never an asylum! It's official title is the Royal Naval Auxilliary Hospital, later just Barrow Gurney Hospital

 

[krela]

Barrow Gurney was never an asylum! It's official title is the Royal Naval Auxilliary Hospital, later just Barrow Gurney Hospital

Err yes it was, it was built as a mental colony, comandeered a few months after it opened for the navy because of WW2, then returned to mental health use after the war.

 

[mookster]

My bad then....must have been supplied with duff info (no change there)

 

[mookster]

Also to add to the list, there are two bits of Horton Hospital in Epsom left unconverted - the superintendant's residence and the chapel...the chapel is sealed tight, the superintendant's residence is a rotten mess. The tower is still there as well, but there was talk of that coming down too.

 

[Flaxington]

Prestwich Asylum - still has parts left, Clifton House (the annex) is the Edenfield Centre, also parts still remain around the side of Tesco

St James - Portsmouth - is still Live - I'm going to have a look tomorrow if I get time.