Question - Can You Identify This Asylum?

[curiousbritishtelly]

Hi

I run a website which looks at old, forgotten British TV shows (www.curiousbritishtelly.co.uk) and I'm currently working on a book which looks at the rare gems of British comedy. One show in particular is 'Asylum' which was Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright's first collaboration back in 1996.

Anyway, I'm trying to research this show, but am drawing blanks on exactly where it was filmed. I've been told it was a disused asylum, but it looks in very good condition so obviously hadn't been abandoned for long in 1996. Or it was being preserved or something.

Here are some pictures:

All help is much appreciated!

 

[ZerO81]

Any info on what you have found do far, any location or.. Anything!

 

[Speed]

It doesn't look much like an Asylum to me.

 

[Oxygen Thief]

Thought it could be Storthes Hall or Greaves Hall, but no.

 

[dweeb]

It could be an example of a country house turned into a hospital... there were plenty of those!

 

[tigger]

Looks far more like a house than a built asylum.
Clearer views of the front if you look on youtube. Even the programme introduction describes it as an "isolated mansion"

 

[curiousbritishtelly]

I have virtually no information on its location unfortunately. I have interviewed one of the comedians who started in the show, but they couldn't remember where it was. They confirmed it was a disused asylum though.

 

[tumbles]

I don't think it was an asylum. It may have been used for mental health purposes like Pool Parc was but never an asylum per se

 

[curiousbritishtelly]

After flicking through Simon Pegg's autobiography, he mentions it was filmed at an old children's hospital in Cobham. Haven't managed to find any mention of such a place online, so I may just have to settle for "disused hospital in Cobham"!

Thanks for taking a look, all!

 

[tigger]

Perhaps this will be of use:

http://www.cobhamheritage.org.uk/index.php/2016-01-31-16-52-22/contact-us

 

[xonix]

You could try contacting the Historic Housing Association. Also have you considered the fact the exterior shot of the building is from a different location to where they filmed the interior shots? I say this as I believe non the shots evolving the actors during any episode show the exterior of the building. So it's possible they filmed in an old asylum, but chose a random building to put in the opening credits.

 

[Carry]

I dont know if this might be of use to you.

The asylums you can see on this forum are county asylums. The mass of county were built under an 1845 act, it was called, The Pauper County Lunatic Asylums act, every county in england had to build an asylum for its pauper lunactics. No one seems to have come across the likes of your photo, so...

There were other acts prior to the 1845 act and many came under 'The Madhouse Act' 1774. Under that act anyone could turn their abode or anything else into an asylum. Now, under that act there seems to have been an abundance of abuse & one not uncommon form of abuse was to have a 'wealthy' somone in the family judged insane ( I cant remember the proceedure, simple though) and end up with all they had & owned.
The house in your photo might come from that era & be something once owned by someone whose beneficiaries had declared them insane. I certainly does not resemble anything from the 1845 act or after. So, maybe you could look further back into history, it looks more like something which existed from the elizibethan origins & turned into a private lunatic asylum or private madhouse for someones beneficiary purposes.
Hope that might widen your research options.

 

[Special Brew]

Found it! Figured it would be a listed building, so searched the listed buildings register for Cobham parish. Used the map view to see if I could recognise it and voila... the former Hatchford Park School.
It was, as people suggested, originally just a grand house, converted at some point into a school. I read somewhere that I was also used for some Dr Who filming too. No mention of It being a hospital/asylum but I will leave the in-depth research to yourself, hope this is of use!

 

[Carry]

Yea they would have called it that, thats still the way much of brit culture still works...it's history is in wiki,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatchford

 

[curiousbritishtelly]

Ah! That's fantastic news! Thanks for all your help!

I'll make sure that the 28 Days Later forum get a thanks in the book!