History -
"Severalls Hospital in Colchester, Essex, United Kingdom was a psychiatric hospital built in 1910 to the design of architect Frank Whitmore. It opened in May 1913.
The 300-acre (120 ha) site housed some 2000 patients and was based on the "Echelon plan" - a specific arrangement of wards, offices and services within easy reach of each other by a network of interconnecting corridors. This meant that staff were able to operate around the site without the need to go outside in bad weather. Unlike modern British hospitals, patients in Severalls were separated according to their gender. Villas were constructed around the main hospital building as accommodation blocks between 1910 and 1935. Most of the buildings are in the Queen Anne style, with few architectural embellishments, typical of the Edwardianperiod. The most ornate buildings are the Administration Building, Larch House and Severalls House (originally the Medical Superintendent's residence)."
Explore -
Visited with Dweeb after seeing that Severalls might actually get demolished this time, we thought it would be rude not to go and say a last goodbye.
I visited this hospital many years ago however it was never one of my favourites so unlike a number of other Asylums I never ventured back until now and I'm really happy that I did, I do love a bit of peely paint action and the day definitely took me back to the "old" days of exploring!
We had a good few hours completely undisturbed wandering around and saw everything we wanted to see bar Admin that we couldn't manage to get into (though try we did!). It was only when we were attempting to get back to the area we'd first entered in order to leave did we bump into two very pleasant security guards who kindly escorted us to the gate nearest where we'd parked for our convenience which I was particularly happy about as I really wasn't looking forward to tackling the fence again!
"Severalls Hospital in Colchester, Essex, United Kingdom was a psychiatric hospital built in 1910 to the design of architect Frank Whitmore. It opened in May 1913.
The 300-acre (120 ha) site housed some 2000 patients and was based on the "Echelon plan" - a specific arrangement of wards, offices and services within easy reach of each other by a network of interconnecting corridors. This meant that staff were able to operate around the site without the need to go outside in bad weather. Unlike modern British hospitals, patients in Severalls were separated according to their gender. Villas were constructed around the main hospital building as accommodation blocks between 1910 and 1935. Most of the buildings are in the Queen Anne style, with few architectural embellishments, typical of the Edwardianperiod. The most ornate buildings are the Administration Building, Larch House and Severalls House (originally the Medical Superintendent's residence)."
Explore -
Visited with Dweeb after seeing that Severalls might actually get demolished this time, we thought it would be rude not to go and say a last goodbye.
I visited this hospital many years ago however it was never one of my favourites so unlike a number of other Asylums I never ventured back until now and I'm really happy that I did, I do love a bit of peely paint action and the day definitely took me back to the "old" days of exploring!
We had a good few hours completely undisturbed wandering around and saw everything we wanted to see bar Admin that we couldn't manage to get into (though try we did!). It was only when we were attempting to get back to the area we'd first entered in order to leave did we bump into two very pleasant security guards who kindly escorted us to the gate nearest where we'd parked for our convenience which I was particularly happy about as I really wasn't looking forward to tackling the fence again!
