real time web analytics
Report - - High Royds Asylum, West Yorkshire - Feb 2015 | Asylums and Hospitals | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - High Royds Asylum, West Yorkshire - Feb 2015

Hide this ad by donating or subscribing !

Hector Rex

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Explored with a non-member​

So after an initial scouting mission we decided head back for an early morning mission.. except by the time we'd woken up and had a Macdonalds breakfast it was no longer that early. Still this place is a fantastic little location. Sadly there is only the admin block, the main hall and a few other bits that haven't been redeveloped left, most of the rooms are pretty empty. However due to the fact that it's surrounded by a fairly live building site it's managed to avoid it's fair share of vandals and graffiti kids.

As always I'm going to shamelessly pinch my history from good old Wikipedia!

High Royds Hospital is a former psychiatric hospital south of the village of Menston, West Yorkshire, England.

The hospital is located within in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough and was first opened on 8 October 1888 as the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum. The hospital closed in 2003 and the site has since been (partially) developed for residential use, some of which is in the old hospital buildings

The hospital was designed on the broad arrow plan by architect J. Vickers Edwards. The 300 acre (1.2 km²) estate on which the asylum was built was purchased by the West Riding Justices for £18,000 in 1885 and the large gothic complex of stone buildings was formally opened on 8 October 1888.

The administration building, which is Grade II listed, features an Italian mosaic floor in the main corridor which is intricately decorated with the Yorkshire Rose and black daisies - the latter of which provided inspiration for the title of Black Daisies a television screenplay, filmed at High Royds, which took as its subject the experiences of sufferers of Alzheimers disease.

The hospital was intended to be largely self-sufficient, and was provided with its own library, surgery, dispensary, butchery, dairies, bakery, shop, upholster's and cobbler's workshops and a large estate partly devoted to agriculture and market gardening. The patients lived in wards and if they were able, were expected to work towards their keep either on the farm, in the kitchens and laundry, or in various handicrafts. The hospital was formerly connected to the Wharfedale railway line by its own small railway system, the High Royds Hospital Railway, but this was closed in 1951.

In its final years of operation, High Royds had become outdated and unsuited to modern psychiatric practice. As part of Leeds Mental Health's £47 million reprovision process it was closed, with the wards being relocated to various community mental health units within the city of Leeds in the three years leading up to its closure. These include the Becklin Centre in St James' Hospital and the Mount in the city centre. The hospital was closed in stages between 25 February 2003 and June of the same year.

As of 2011, the site was being redeveloped as a new village, also called High Royds, retaining some features of the hospital such as the ballroom and the clock tower

Onto the pictures!

1. Arbitrary external
16662319451_65bf2727de_b.jpg


2.
16041421984_229c679b31_b.jpg


3.
16456422157_8082456e67_b.jpg


4.
16477581179_642091598c_b.jpg


5.
16043794833_15305ac25d_b.jpg


6.
16662706952_39d36cd46f_b.jpg


7.
16662706312_94e2d9574d_b.jpg


8.
16637797696_59883b3b30_b.jpg


9.
16041416864_7a0ac6829e_b.jpg


10.
16043791953_f211553453_b.jpg


11. One of the slabs in the basement, Lit with flash gun and head torch
16476148938_10d25f4fb1_b.jpg


12.
16456416187_7bba6361d3_b.jpg


13.
16476148108_97e51ef02c_b.jpg


14.
16476147538_911b372d87_b.jpg


15.
16477574199_9f2bfe4016_b.jpg


16.
16476315950_20693983c1_b.jpg


17.
16663721065_82d61657ae_b.jpg


18.
16456409437_4f4905d92d_b.jpg


19. had a lot of fun jumping about doing some floating man shots!
16637785696_cf5faa9f6d_b.jpg


20.
16663716235_0cde303628_b.jpg


21.
16477565119_2239b50c92_b.jpg


22.
16662690432_148afccd1b_b.jpg


23.
16662689542_546becda04_b.jpg


24.
16663711915_66f9718933_b.jpg


25.
16043773813_63aaa493cb_b.jpg


26.
16477559179_8398de24dd_b.jpg


I hope you like what you see!

Over an out, HR
 
Last edited:

Bugsuperstar

Irresponsible & Reckless
Regular User
The best shots I've seen from here in ages. Its nice to someone up that clock tower again. Well done.
 

raisinwing

28DL Regular User
Regular User
Holy shit! I'd been meaning to visit here the other week, wish I'd had the time now. :(

Must make some time to have a little nosey around.
 

Oxygen Thief

Admin
Staff member
Admin
Excellent set of pictures, some of the best actually.

Just one thing... "11. The slab" is actually 'a slab'. That's not the main mortuary.
 

Hector Rex

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Noted and updated dude :) Just put 'the' for the name of the photo. we found 2 of them in one of the basements and as you say there would have been a mortuary too.. Not sure if we say it though or if it's been converted/demolished..
 

UrbexploreUK

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Noted and updated dude :) Just put 'the' for the name of the photo. we found 2 of them in one of the basements and as you say there would have been a mortuary too.. Not sure if we say it though or if it's been converted/demolished..

Glad interest in the place has been sparked again, beautiful spot! I believe (Someone correct me if I'm wrong) that the mortuary is still standing BUT the slab has been relocated to a museum so there'd be little left to see.

The photos are beautiful, even a little jealous as on both of the visits we made the clock tower was boarded up!
 

Hector Rex

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Yeah Apparently it's in the Wakefield mental health museum along with one of the padded cells from here..
 
Top