Report - St Lawrence's Mental Hospital, Bodmin, Cornwall. August 2009

[elsapel]

I know St Lawrence's has been done before, but it's still a fantastic building that has remained relatively unscathed by vandals, chavs, the homeless and otherwise. I'm not going to write the history of it due to it previously being done, and that's the one thing that doesn't change! There is still 24 hour security patrolling the site, but like most places they are fairly reluctant to enter the building without the Police.

The weather wasn't brilliant on my trip and i only had an ickle camera, so please excuse the quality of some of the pictures. I would love to have feedback (positive or otherwise) so i know if it's worth me doing this sort of thing again. I spent about 2 hours inside and i managed to do most of it, although the sub-tunnels that run underneath are an exploration in themselves. I did find out that the tunnels are actually connected over Bodmin - They run from what used to be the Courts on Mount Folly (in the middle of town) to either Bodmin Jail where people were hanged, or back to St Lawrences where they were detained. This was to stop the residents of Bodmin from seeing 'the condemned' and to keep Bodmin free of the guilty and mad.
Believe it or not, the Hospital only had 5 'secure cells' which were never padded, they were just solid concrete rooms with a very high single window.


Foster Hall. Still untouched but has a slight leak.



The ceiling in Foster Hall. Work of art!



'Calming' posters in the patient's day room.



Entrance Hall with enquiry office.



One of the many staircases.



Loveny Ward was where the proper mentals went!



Dining Room, complete with 1970's paper lanterns!



Lanterns



Bedpan in the Shower room. Unfortunately, it is only the 'Medibath' and the bedpan that remain, the tilting bath (which i couldn't wait to find after seeing a photo of it on here) has disappeared! Gutted!



What's left of the quiet room.



One of the many tunnels stretching for miles underneath the town.



Forgotten creature.



Stairs down from the Nurse's quarters.



Switches in the electric treatment room - i love the '?' one!



On the corridor outside the treatment room.



The doors lead into Foster Hall (our starting point)



That's it...look at the pretty pictures...



Hmmmm...Time to go!




Like i said at the top, please leave a few comments so i know it's been worthwhile...i'd love to know what people think.

[Oxygen Thief]

Nice one mate, you've captured it really well, I really like the second picture, with the really ace lights and nice ceiling. Just a point about the tunnels, they are unlikely to 'stretch for miles under the town'. At most they run under the old parts of the hospital. I don't know where you got that information from but I'm very sceptical about it. I believe the courts and the Jail could be connected, that's common. But these are just standard service tunnels and weren't designed for moving 'prisoners', just power, water and engineers. As always though, happy to be proved wrong.

[BillAnd]

great first report

things can only get better !

[elsapel]

The tunnels do go to the court and jail, i found the old town records and it shows where they meet underneath: When they stopped using them (i.e when Bodmin Jail closed) they even renamed one of the streets in the town so people wouldn't associate the street with them! Long since blocked up though and you could be right about the service tunnels!

[elsapel]

Originally Posted by Oxygen Thief

Nice one mate, you've captured it really well, I really like the second picture, with the really ace lights and nice ceiling. Just a point about the tunnels, they are unlikely to 'stretch for miles under the town'. At most they run under the old parts of the hospital. I don't know where you got that information from but I'm very sceptical about it. I believe the courts and the Jail could be connected, that's common. But these are just standard service tunnels and weren't designed for moving 'prisoners', just power, water and engineers. As always though, happy to be proved wrong.

Touche, you could very well be right, they definately run from the Jail to Courts though. : )

[Oxygen Thief]

Do me a favour when you have the time, go and get some photo's of these records and post them up. Maybe a bit of subterranean reworking could be in order?

[dangerous dave]

and im on the way to bodmin as soon as possible to see what i can find

[clebby]

That hall is gorgeous - definitely the most colourful out there! Good work, I love the paper lanterns too. Definitely check up on these tunnels...

In previous reports it says the place is covered in PIR alarms. Any sign of these?

[djflava]

Originally Posted by clebby

That hall is gorgeous - definitely the most colourful out there! Good work, I love the paper lanterns too. Definitely check up on these tunnels...

In previous reports it says the place is covered in PIR alarms. Any sign of these?

Yeah mate the place is covered in pirs at diffrent heights to
i saw one numbered 47 so who knows how many the total number is
but like someone has said previously the police are always called

[True_British_Metal]

Originally Posted by djflava

Yeah mate the place is covered in pirs at diffrent heights to
i saw one numbered 47 so who knows how many the total number is
but like someone has said previously the police are always called

What does a PIR look like? Are they the same things as those motion sensors in the corner of a room that trigger a light to go on?