West Park Asylum
It all started with a completely unrelated business trip to Lymington, since we were travelling such a way down south Rachel and I decided it would be a good idea to take advantage of the weekend and attempt to explore one or two of the abandoned asylums down that neck of the woods (and trust me there are a few). My initial target was Cane Hill, I've wanted to go there for as long as I can remember pretty much as soon as I became interested in Urban Exploration, however it didn't take too long to find out that Cane Hill is pretty much demolish except for a couple of choice buildings which I understand are to be refurbished as part of ongoing redevelopment at the site. Completely gutted I began to look elsewhere and considered Severalls, Hellingley but ultimately settled on West Park due to the quality of photographs that had come from this place.
We did a quick reconnaissance visit on Saturday eve which lead me to believe the trip planned for the following day would be a complete wash out, rife with security, vans were seen on site, fresh boards noticed on a lot of the lower accessible windows and strangely enough I noted that part of the site is still in use.
We returned pretty early on Sunday morning and to my amazement managed to gain entry to 2 of the buildings at the furthest point of the grounds from the main entrance. Shortly after we made our way towards the centre of the site but while fighting with the brambles noticed a silver car and a man walking towards us. Needless to say we bolted (I believe unseen by the guard) and returned to the car to have a rest before returning to explore more of the site. About an hour or so later as we made our way back to the grounds we spotted other explorers being escorted off the land. After catching up with them we learned that the guards had removed several groups from the site already that morning which reaffirms my theory that Urbexing has become a victim of its own success. It was at that point we abandoned the visit and said our goodbyes to West Park which will no doubt follow the route that Cane Hill has suffered and become reduced to rubble over the coming months.
On with the photos starting with a few mobile phone shots and moving on to the SLR photos from Sunday:
Above: Beds and lamps are one of the few remaining items still in this part of the building.
Above: The room was scattered with about 10-15 of these chairs.
Above: As you can see some of the floor was in a very poor state of repair and I happily avoided walking through this room.
Above: Two of the remaining beds with a fabric pull curtain divider enclosed within 6ft high prefabricated wall sections.
Above: Bath for the patients
Above: Heavily damaged room with very little roof remaining. From the looks of the contents within I would guess this was used as a games room shortly before the hospital closing.
Above: Heavily damaged room with very little roof remaining. From the looks of the contents within I would guess this was used as a games room shortly before the hospital closing.
Above: Heavily damaged room with very little roof remaining. From the looks of the contents within I would guess this was used as a games room shortly before the hospital closing.
Above: My guess is that these 3 rooms on the ward would have been cells at one point in time but currently sporting internal yale locks I presume they were converted into something a little less sinister
Above: Another view of the chairs.
Above: Beds still made.
Above: Close up of one of the peeling pink chairs.
Above: Hospital waste bag left on one of the beds.
Above: This part of the building was becoming increasingly water damaged but it was nice to see some items remained in situ
Above: Fire exit door now boarded up from the outside to prevent unwanted Urbexers?
Above: Doors to the showers, bath and laundry facilities
Now for some history...
West Park Asylum (or West Park Hospital) was a large psychiatric hospital in Epsom, Surrey. The hospital was designed by William C. Clifford-Smith (architect to the London County Council), who was also involved in the design of nearby St Ebba's Hospital. The hospital had been in planning since 1906, and by 1917 it was largely complete; however, the outbreak of war postponed opening until 1923.
When complete the hospital could cater for around 2,000 patients of mixed class, and hence the site had extensive boiler houses and plant rooms, a large laundry and a substantial water tower. There were enormous kitchens located behind the canteen, and in turn this was behind the main hall/ballroom. However, the main hall suffered an arson attack on September 30th 2003 and is now a burnt out shell. The asylum also boasted its own railway but this was removed in 1950, and no trace remains except around the central engineering block. The main stores and sewing rooms were also located here, but other services, such as the mortuary and chapel, were located by the entrance road, along with two lodges for the matrons and a large manor for the superintendent.
The hospital was slowly run down from the mid 1990s, and by 2003 most of the hospital was closed and derelict. A few outer ward buildings and villas remain open today and are still used for psychiatric treatment. As the hospital is largely derelict, it is of increasing interest to urban explorers who visit for the sheer size of the hospital, and also for many hospital items still in situ, such as beds, kitchen equipment and personal items. A padded cell is also of interest to explorers.
The hospital was the last great London asylum, and the last of the Epsom Cluster, a group of 5 mental institutes (the others being Horton, Manor, Long Grove and St Ebba's.) The asylum follows the compact arrow design, with external villas.
Location:
Click the map for a link to google maps
Other great West Park Asylum resouces:
Whateversleft.co.uk - Great Urbex site which has an awesome collection of Asylum shots West Park features several times with viits as far back as 2008.
Countyasylums.com - Great Asylum resources here alot of detail about the Hospital and photographs from years gone by.
Westparkhospital.co.uk - More photographs and histopry of the site can be found here! well worth a look.