Oh my I've waited a long while to experience the thrill of wandering the vast decaying halls of an abandoned asylum in the UK. The last asylum I did in this country - the now demolished Harperbury Hospital - was a confused mix of extremely dilapidated buildings nestled up against freshly closed buildings, none of which were connected, and was a strange place to be.

The last time I explored a 'proper' compact arrow/echelon plan asylum was a revisit to Hellingly Hospital all the way back at the tail end of 2009. Nearly nine long years without a major asylum here under my belt, through a combination of bad luck on my part, laziness on my part - case in point Severalls, Whittingham, St. Mary's, etc etc all doable but for some reason I never made it to them before they were demolished - and bad timing with access/security stuff.

However all that changed in the middle of last week when I got a message that this asylum was, for the time being, pretty much wide open with security who had seemingly vanished. It closed back in April 2016 and for most of those two and a half years the security was shit hot, with cameras both around the fence perimeter as well as dotted along the main corridor that loops the massive site, a comprehensive alarm system and an extremely fast response time as and when something was tripped or set off. Friends of mine have been arrested here before (a real rarity in the UK), there were spates of some extremely questionable security for brief periods but now all that seems to have gone. The NHS teams recently finished destroying all the confidential documents on site, the power was switched off and the buildings handed back to a community partnership or something.

This is probably the best all-round derelict asylum the UK has produced since West Park. It's got a bit of everything from fresh as the day it was abandoned wards to extremely derpy bits, modernised and unmodernised areas, a dentist surgery, amazing hall and loads of stuff left to root through. Kids and idiots are slowly making a mess inside and if it's left like it is currently sadly I can see there being a fire in there sooner rather than later that will either take out the hall or the main stores area.

It was absolutely pouring down with rain for the duration of the visit so I didn't get any proper external shots however I took a number through windows as I absolutely love the look of this place from the outside with it's unusual two tone brickwork.

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The wards here didn't have names, they were simply numbered 1-5 on each side East and West. East & West 1 were closest to the centre of the hospital, with East & West 5 at the furthest points away along the giant U-shaped corridor that runs around the site.

Ward West 5 was an anomaly in that, for unclear reasons, it was shuttered way back in the 1980s. It may have had something to do with the rampant dry rot that has invaded the building, but who knows. It couldn't have been more of a contrast to it's sister ward on the other side, Ward East 5, which was the most intact out of all the wards.

The floors in West 5 were so badly rotted out that we were unable to venture far, but it provided a window into what the asylum would have looked like before modernisation happened in the 1990s.

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After that we headed back into the main body of the asylum to the hall via the dentist surgery. At some point some mocked up modernised 'new' rooms were constructed in the middle of the hall which is both intriguing but also annoying as it ruins it somewhat.

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We then decided to make the climb up the water tower that dominates the middle of the site. Sadly by this time the rain had started coming down even harder so opportunities for photos were limited in the exposed top portion.

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As I mentioned before, Ward East 5 is the exact opposite to the long-closed West 5. East 5 was the Crisis Assessment Ward and thanks to it's out of the way location it looks as if everyone has just stepped out for a minute and will return any second.

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Wards East 4 and 3 were inaccessible due to building work taking place in the vicinity so it was onwards to East 2 and 1.

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Apologies for the long read, but this was the biggest location I have explored this year and after spending eight hours inside it wanted to do it justice! I think overall I saw maybe 80% of the total site on this trip.

Thanks for looking

dang that place looks huge! It doesn't look like a warzone either haha

holy shit dude, this is one of the best sets i've seen in a long time.

Great spot man, good job !

What an amazingly well-rounded location, this place has everything! Pic-heavy and all the better for it, great thread.

Wow, this place looks huge! Thanks for sharing

Damnnnnnn dude! This place is killer! Great shots and good work on getting in early this time. If it's that wide open might not be long before the idiots descend on it en masse.

Posted by TheSwanStation Damnnnnnn dude! This place is killer! Great shots and good work on getting in early this time. If it's that wide open might not be long before the idiots descend on it en masse.

They already have sadly, explorers are running into whole groups of them going around chucking stuff around and breaking stuff. Sadly it's not in the best location and that coupled with lax security means it's a sitting duck - I'm just waiting for the news of an inevitable fire.

Hopefully the security situation is sorted out soon, as much as I like an easy ride somewhere like this would be a tragedy to lose.

Absolutely killer set. So glad you made it early!

Wow these are all great! So rare to have a set of pics from a spot where there are so many incredible shots. Thanks for sharing!

great shots! Looks like an awesome place. Glad you were able to get there and see some of it before it's completely destroyed.

Wow 50 looks like someone still lives in that room. Great shots. Best I have seen in a long time. The place looks amazing. That would take me a whole camping weekend to explore! Great work

Woah! This place is huge! That's so cool.

Pictures 27, 28, 50 really stand out to me. So clean and hardly touched, I imagine it won't stay like that for long

Dang that place is huge. Only 8 hours there? That's not enough time! The lighting and blue tones in #3 are amazing.

Nice pics, nice place to see. My 3rd time lucky here, last time motorized camera spun and pointed straight at us !

great set!

Posted by pincheck Nice pics, nice place to see. My 3rd time lucky here, last time motorized camera spun and pointed straight at us !

All the cameras are dead now. The one that used to catch loads of people inside the corridor near the hall junction has actually been smashed off the wall....

Cheers all...I would have spent longer in there but we were utterly drained by mid afternoon. We left at the right time too as shortly afterwards my other friends who we met up with ran into a police dog unit inside. It turns out that this is the largest registered indoor police dog training site in South Wales!

Damn! That's huge. Nice find.