Introduction
One from the backlog. St Martin’s has been posted a number of times but thought I would share my take on the place considering I haven’t done many asylums and this explore was a highlight of 2022 for me. Visited with @JakeV50.
Information & History
It has been covered numerous times before so I won’t go too in-depth. St Martin’s Hospital, or Canterbury Borough Asylum as it was originally known, opened in 1902. The hospital was designed using a compact arrow layout which was one of many architectural design choices of old asylums. Other examples of this layout include Goodmayes Hospital and Severalls in Colchester. In the 1920s the hospital became the Canterbury City Mental Hospital and then was later known as St Martin’s. Referring to such mental health institutions as asylums became somewhat frowned upon and lots of other mental hospitals followed this trend. In the 1980s, patient numbers began to decline and in 2019 the original hospital was sold to Homes England.
More information, including a nice old aerial photo can be found on the County Asylums website. This is always an excellent and reliable resource for anything asylum-related.
The Explore
It was a pretty grim day and freezing cold but we still had a really good day. There didn’t seem to be any life happening on site (ie no security) and was a relaxed wander. We managed to spend about seven hours here in total getting lost a few times in the process. Although it is a small asylum compared to some, the maze of sections and corridors did confuse us at times. I enjoyed this one and although it didn’t have as much decay as I would like it was still great to see it in nice condition. It will be interesting to see what it’s like in a couple of years when more decay sets in unless it is redeveloped within that time. The way out of the perimeter turned out to be a little awkward as there was a large gathering of youths near the gap in the fence, we definitely surprised them when we popped out but they were alright and one of them even offered drugs to us randomly. Good ol' Canterbury haha.
Onto the photos starting with the lovely main hall. I always enjoy the design of these old asylum halls:
Part of the hall was later converted into a sort of church/chapel room:
The corridors seemed endless here despite it being a smaller asylum:
The colours throughout the buildings were varied:
Despite being decay-less for the most part, there were signs of the building aging:
A very decayed toilet:
Record storage room:
A couple of externals to finish:
Thanks for looking!
One from the backlog. St Martin’s has been posted a number of times but thought I would share my take on the place considering I haven’t done many asylums and this explore was a highlight of 2022 for me. Visited with @JakeV50.
Information & History
It has been covered numerous times before so I won’t go too in-depth. St Martin’s Hospital, or Canterbury Borough Asylum as it was originally known, opened in 1902. The hospital was designed using a compact arrow layout which was one of many architectural design choices of old asylums. Other examples of this layout include Goodmayes Hospital and Severalls in Colchester. In the 1920s the hospital became the Canterbury City Mental Hospital and then was later known as St Martin’s. Referring to such mental health institutions as asylums became somewhat frowned upon and lots of other mental hospitals followed this trend. In the 1980s, patient numbers began to decline and in 2019 the original hospital was sold to Homes England.
More information, including a nice old aerial photo can be found on the County Asylums website. This is always an excellent and reliable resource for anything asylum-related.
The Explore
It was a pretty grim day and freezing cold but we still had a really good day. There didn’t seem to be any life happening on site (ie no security) and was a relaxed wander. We managed to spend about seven hours here in total getting lost a few times in the process. Although it is a small asylum compared to some, the maze of sections and corridors did confuse us at times. I enjoyed this one and although it didn’t have as much decay as I would like it was still great to see it in nice condition. It will be interesting to see what it’s like in a couple of years when more decay sets in unless it is redeveloped within that time. The way out of the perimeter turned out to be a little awkward as there was a large gathering of youths near the gap in the fence, we definitely surprised them when we popped out but they were alright and one of them even offered drugs to us randomly. Good ol' Canterbury haha.
Onto the photos starting with the lovely main hall. I always enjoy the design of these old asylum halls:
Part of the hall was later converted into a sort of church/chapel room:
The corridors seemed endless here despite it being a smaller asylum:
The colours throughout the buildings were varied:
Despite being decay-less for the most part, there were signs of the building aging:
A very decayed toilet:
Record storage room:
A couple of externals to finish:
Thanks for looking!
