In 2023 we set off on a road trip through Wales, with the aim of documenting the country’s former lunatic asylums. These institutions were commonly built towards the end of the 19th, and early 20th centuries, for councils to look after the mentally ill. Today most of the sites lie either ruined or boarded up…
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Ordnance Survey 1945-1965 mapping showing the five Epsom Cluster asylums In Epsom, Surrey, the former London County Council decided to create five London County Asylums as suburban mental hospitals. These were mostly typical ‘lunatic asylums’ as they were initially known – large institutions to accommodate those with mental illnesses, disorders and learning difficulties. The Manor…
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At the junction of the Sadlers Farm roundabout and Tarpots on the A13 road lies a suspected wartime remnant passed by hundreds of people everyday that goes largely unnoticed. The A13 originally formed the London-Southend road that historically connected the capital to Southend, and was a frequent route for holiday makers as well as being…
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Hellingly Hospital began construction in 1898 and first opened in 1903 as East Sussex County Lunatic Asylum. Originally, East and West Sussex shared a joint asylum, being St. Francis at Haywards Heath, when the county was still one body however when it split into east and west in 1889, East Sussex needed its own institution,…
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Lisnevin Training School was a secure borstal that looked after adolescent boys who were either on remand or had been referred from more open training schools. Opening in 1973, the site could accommodate up to 40 boys, many of which were either violent or were at risk of absconding. Surrounded by a seven-meter fence, this…
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Play from 10:06 to watch our footage of Gartloch Asylum If you’ve ever watched a horror film or read a scary book about a psychiatric hospital in the middle of nowhere, you might picture somewhere like Gartloch Asylum. The imposing administration building with its two striking towers still stands today and is one of the…
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The Murray Royal Hospital in Perth is Scotland’s oldest surviving asylum and was one of the grandest built. The now derelict asylum was named after local man James Murray who funded the construction of the hospital after inheriting “considerable wealth.” Designed by William Burn, the original plans were based on designs for West Riding Asylum,…
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High Royds in Menston is one of the most well-documented and now infamous of the county asylums to be built, instantly recognizable by its looming clocktower. In 1885, some 300 acres of land was purchased and over the next 3 years construction work began to build one of the more lavish asylums ever constructed. The…
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In February 2024, we visited what remains of South Ockendon Hospital, and were shown around the beautiful recreation hall and other surviving rooms with kind permission of the Brandon Groves Community Club. The hall formed the centre of what was once a vast villa-plan institution for people with learning difficulties. Whilst not a county asylum,…
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Roundway Hospital dates back to the 1840’s when a committee of Justices approved plans for an asylum in Wiltshire. Forty-eight acres of land was purchased and architect Thomas Henry Wyatt was brought in to design the asylum, who went for an Italianate style. Stone for the buildings was mined locally and slate for the roof…
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