Report - Cheadle Royal Asylum, Manchester, October 2017

[UrbandonedTeam]

The Day
We really wanted Lluesty Hospital to be our first asylum or Denbigh just because of the feel of the place, but doesn't seem like either will be happening too soon, as there seems to be a growing number of places really close to us. Anyway, made the one train (amazing!) up to Cheadle to check out this bombshell, didn't have much hopes for the inside but just because it's an asylum, we decided to bun it and go for it.

History (from another report)
Cheadle Royal Hospital, formerly known as the Manchester Royal Lunatic Asylum, was a psychiatric hospital built in 1848 – 1849. As of 2010, the majority of the original site became part of the Priory Group, which offers comprehensive inpatient mental health services. One building, known locally as ‘South House’ has been left abandoned.

The Visit
As you'll see if you watch the video, we were caught by a security guard from the business park side of the fence, so before we'd even accessed the site, but turns out the guy was one of the nicest we'd met, and he gave us a better way of access into the building! Once inside the fence, it is ridiculously easy, seems like the council has given up protecting it which is a little worrying as it is very dodgy inside, but as long as you stay on concrete, you should be alright.

There is barely anything in the building artefact wise, which was a little disappointing but I still enjoyed the explore nevertheless. The other downside was that it is full with pigeons and they were constantly jump scaring us around every corner.

Pictures
Seen as almost nothing is boarded up anymore, a lot of light is let into this place so pictures came quite naturally.

Think I did OK, please leave me some feedback

Thanks for reading

 

[ZerO81]

Another fine set of shots, looks like you have made the place look quite nice.

Never been here myself, it looks well gone, but may have to go one day just to get it ticked off the list.

 

[atojozu]

Hi, a friend and I are looking for some cool places to explore, we're beginners. Unfortunately, most places seem to be demolished or converted recently!! Could you give some info about how to get into this hospital and the general area and security?? thanks.

 

[Skeleton Ops]

Great pics. I used in play in there all the time in the late 90s (96-98) when I was a teenager. The place was in much better condition then as the roof was still on and largely intact so apart from all the broken window panes it was reasonably weather tight. There were no holes in the floors and surprisingly little damp apart from the ground floor. There were lots of metal hospital beds and mattresses and a lot of rooms had other furniture and artifacts. All the toilets and sinks were still fitted (although one or two were smashed) Successive generations of teenagers have obviously stripped everything out.

Getting in was difficult back then as the place was solidly boarded. There used to be a wooden annex on the north side of the building between the two wings that served as the laundry room that we literally had to smash through the wall to get in. This was the beginning of a long running skirmish with the laundry company that was operating on the grounds of the hospital just the other side of the stream next to the tennis court. They would phone the police, and then board up the hole so we'd have to make another. Teenagers being teenagers, we got more and more ingenious at getting in and eventually we chiselled brick work out to get into the (flooded) cellar.

We tried on numerous occasions to stay the night but the bats and pigeons and rattly metal blinds would always scare us off, especially as this was long before the adjacent business park was built (it was all just fields back in my day blah blah blah) so there was no light at all at night time!

Some builders started work on the place in 2000-2001 at around the same time that north house (the larger building to the north east) was converted into the hotel and conference centre it is today, but either ran out of money or deemed it unfeasible to convert so left. They had already stripped the roof tiles though so that is why it's in such a poor state today.

Very surprised it's still standing to be honest, it's completely past saving now in any case.