The Mortuary Collection: 2009 - 2019 - Thread

I think we can all agree that out of every sort of abandoned building, or feature in a building, mortuaries are one of the most sought after things for many people.

I've been lucky enough to document quite a few over the years I've been an active explorer, from totally complete to completely stripped - however the holy grail still eludes me - I'm yet to get lucky enough to shoot a porcelain slab still in situ. As far as I'm aware in the UK there are only two derelict mortuaries left which still contain an original porcelain slab, one in the far southwest of the country and one in Scotland which I do not know the exact whereabouts of. Up until recently there was also a porcelain slab in a store room at a long derelict orphanage however some drunken idiot decided to try and move it and then predictably broke it.

Most mortuaries had them removed and replaced with stainless steel slabs however a few hung on or were closed before being replaced - those in the UK lucky enough to explore Bristol General Hospital back in the day were treated to the sight of two mortuaries, one containing two steel slabs and one which would have contained two porcelain slabs were one of them not removed and installed at Frenchay Hospital just outside the city, which then subsequently closed in 2014. The mortuary at Frenchay was then found to contain four steel slabs and the porcelain one from BGH! That particular mortuary very quickly became rather infamous as various fridges still contained identifiable body parts, the photos of which made it to the internet and somewhat inevitably caused a rather large drama....

Anyway enough reminiscing, time for some mortuary action.

1. West Park Hospital, 2009

I'm sure even many US explorers are familiar with the place as it was the last true time capsule asylum left in the UK, closing in stages up until 2003, much later than the large wave of closures in the 1990s. It's mortuary however was weird, as it sort of wasn't one by the time closure came around. The mortuary was sat next to the original chapel, located opposite the admin block. In the 1980s for some reason the chapel was demolished, and after the demolition the mortuary was converted into a pathology lab. The slab was removed (I assume it was a porcelain one) and that room turned into storage space, however the body chillers remained along with a couple of laboratory rooms. Back in 2009 the labs contained hundreds of blood sample slides as well as boxes full of dissected brain tissue samples encased in wax, naturally these all went walkies over the years and by the time I got to return in 2013 a lot had been cleared.

After that things went a little quiet as I was still finding my feet. I visited Denbigh Hospital in 2011 but didn't get a photo of the mortuary - by that point it was little more than an empty room with the plinth that would have once held the long since broken porcelain slab in it.

2. Mansfield General Hospital, 2012

Funny story with this one. MGH was a totally infamous hospital in the UK - closed since 1992, sat right in the middle of a densely populated residential area and with on the ball security as well as nosey neighbours who'd not hesitate to call the police on you as you can imagine it has it's fair share of explorer tales to tell. As it happened though there was a very easy way to do it which avoided all the drama, that only a few explorers knew about and kept it secret - the security guard lived in a house opposite the main gate, and if you got talking to him and just wanted to go in and take photos he'd happily let you roam around the buildings to your hearts content. Once we were in he asked us if we wanted to see the mortuary, which of course we did, so to save time he led us there and realised that at some point recently he'd screwed the door to it shut - so he promptly kicked the door open right in front of us!

No slab, only a 12 body fridge left.

3. Standish Hospital, 2012

This place I'll be covering more in the '2020 Demolition Thread' whenever that goes up. Closed in 2006, up until 2019 when the power was finally cut almost all of the buildings were stuffed full of alarms and with security located right in the middle of the site it was always one of those 'so close but so far' locations. However a few of the less important/smaller buildings lacked the alarms, the mortuary being one of them.

No slab (again I assume it was a porcelain one), and a small half dismantled body chiller as well as a small viewing room.

4. Salve Mater Asylum, 2013

One of Belgium's most famous abandoned hospitals, I believe it's now all been converted into housing.

My first slab! The mortuary was located in a small non-descript single storey annexe next to the chapel, for some reason I have no photos of any body fridges but they may have been removed I can't remember.

5. West Park Hospital, 2013

I returned here in 2013 whilst in the area. By 2013 almost the whole site had been converted into apartments and housing, but the mortuary and a couple of other smaller buildings hung on. The mortuary was eventually quietly demolished in 2014.

6. U.S. Military Hospital, 2014

The first hospital I explored on US soil also happened to contain a rather awesome little mortuary in the basement. Steel slab complete with head restraint and a cute little wooden doored body chiller, I really liked this one.

7. Letchworth Village, 2015

Explored at the end of a very long very cold day, it was getting dark quickly and the only photo I took of the entire place was of the battered mortuary.

8. Selly Oak Hospital, 2015

Selly Oak is probably one of the all-time great mortuaries in the UK. Most mortuaries are fairly small and/or contained within a larger part of the hospital, Selly Oak's mortuary was a huge standalone two storey building. The building consisted of the mortuary itself on the lower floor along with a chapel of rest and various other rooms, and on the upper floor were various pathology labs. The hospital, including the mortuary, was almost totally demolished in 2016.

Three steel slabs, an entire wall of body chillers which could hold 40 bodies, a chapel of rest and numerous labs, it's the most impressive mortuary I've personally laid eyes on.

9. Moorgreen Hospital, 2015

Moorgreen was very strange. The hospital itself was old, dating back to Victorian times, but internally it was totally modernised and really really dull with almost nothing of note to see at all. The mortuary however was somewhat different, located in a small non-descript building away from the main site. What it lacked in mortuary fittings it made up for in a big way with one of the most well-preserved viewing rooms I've seen.

The slab was long gone, as the room containing it had been demolished. There were two body chillers capable of holding 15 bodies in total, and the aforementioned viewing room. The whole site was levelled by the end of 2015.

10. Peninsula Hospital, 2015

Peninsula Hospital was located in Far Rockaway, NY. It closed in 2012 after failing state inspections just prior to Hurricane Sandy hitting New York, and the damage inflicted by the hurricane halted any sort of reopening efforts. The hospital was demolished some time at the end of 2015.

The mortuary here was very dark and very cluttered as it had been used for storage after closure, however it was largely intact and featured a single steel slab, a six body fridge and a single XL-sized body fridge for the more generously proportioned members of society - I somehow forgot to get a photo of that sadly!

11. St. Peter's Hospital, 2016

The mortuary at St. Peter's is somewhere I should have explored around 2010. It wasn't even that far away from where I live, barely over an hour, and used to be mint. By the time I finally pulled my finger out my arse at the beginning of 2016 it had become a soggy trashed tagged mess. It was finally demolished earlier this year.

Originally it had three steel slabs although one had been stolen, severing a water main in the process, which was pumping water into the building continuously. The wall of body fridges was the best feature, and the chapel of rest was a wreck.

12. Overbrook Hospital, 2016

I don't really need to say much about Overbrook!

13. Rockland Hospital, 2016

Nor do I really need to say much about Rockland!

14. Royal Victoria Hospital, 2018

A small mortuary tucked away at the rear of a semi-abandoned hospital. One of the most disappointing I've ever shot, however it was still a mortuary, just. As of 2020 it's demolished and the main building on it's way to being renovated.

No slab, and the body fridges didn't even have the doors left.

15. Standish Hospital, 2019

I popped my head into the mortuary at Standish again last year on my second revisit after learning about the demise of the alarms and imminent conversion, and it looked much the same as it had done eight years previous. I literally just stuck my head in the door and snapped a photo!

Sadly I've not done any this year!

Thanks for reading