The History:
Opened in 1840 as Surrey County Pauper Lunatic Asylum, Springfield University Hospital no longer boasts the hospitable prowess it once did.
During World War One it was dubbed ‘Springfield War Hospital’ and later became a psychiatric hospital before joining the NHS upon its creation in 1948.
The hospital itself hardly has an infallible record: In 1967 it was put under investigation, resulting in a conclusion that at least two nurses were prone to emitting violence. Another major incident was declared when, in 2004, a paranoid schizophrenic simply walked out of the hospital unchecked and stabbed an innocent, innocuous cyclist to death.
At its peak, Springfield housed 2,000 patients, though now reportedly has fewer than 300 as most of the site is completely disused, with plans to convert it into a residential site.
The Explore:
Shortly after an encounter with Police following a previous explore, @xplorer.x, @UrbandonedTeam, @The Excursionists and I headed off here for an evening explore.
We sat with acquiesce like bait in the NHS car park for a couple hours while two of our group attempted to find their way inside before we would do the same.
Once inside we had very little trouble; there was a faint pitter-patter of footsteps on the lower floors initially from security, but they seemingly faded after only twenty minutes or so.
We started from the top floor main corridor and slowly descended down the building. The first room I came to was ostensibly a small ward room because of the curtain rails on the wall.
The mirrors fortuitously remained un-smashed, which further added to the sense of natural decay that pullulated through the structure as opposed to violent criminal damage.
The main hall contained many extensive windows which encouraged the natural light to flood through since the power had been cut in the old block we were in at the time. Evidently this block had been previously stripped by workers, as the carpet was missing and all previous veneers had been removed from the room.
On the floor below, I found myself in a ward finally. As shown in the previous photo, the frippery had all but been stripped away and there was nothing of note left in the room except some dishevelled radiators and redundant light switches.
The natural decay in this place was breath-taking. Featured here is a bathroom still bedecked with medical equipment in the form of personal bathing barriers that take the role of a curtain. The light colours in this room added perfectly to the ambience and majestic calm Springfield embraced.
Finally I was able to get this infamous shot that is so notorious of Springfield; all the beds being left so immutably in place gave an indescribable aura of historical semblance which will resonate so profoundly with anybody who’s dealt with medical environments, since we can now observe the opulence of such a structure, while history tells a different story of the patients that would have been mistreated and even brutally attacked in some cases right in this very room.
Another ward pictured here, this time furnished with such extravagance as a carpet.
This room exhibited more of a nature theme than the others with the vines emanating from the cracked windows.
A view of the main, central corridor which contained the tributaries to each individual room/ward from the centre of the building.
Most of the rooms had been stripped, like this one for storage, though the peeling and standardised paint job collectively harnessed this institutions archaic past.
In the eleventh hour we culminated the explore with the more modern section which still had electricity running through it. Despite the obvious construction spray-paint, it was a cordial ending which contrasted greatly with the foregoing rooms of decay and extravagance.
I hasten to add that this block may not entirely live up to my proclamation of ‘full power’, though nevertheless the rooms that did still light up were fantastic to photograph because of the apparent lack of modern structural planning in allocating window space in the new building…
Thanks for reading!
Opened in 1840 as Surrey County Pauper Lunatic Asylum, Springfield University Hospital no longer boasts the hospitable prowess it once did.
During World War One it was dubbed ‘Springfield War Hospital’ and later became a psychiatric hospital before joining the NHS upon its creation in 1948.
The hospital itself hardly has an infallible record: In 1967 it was put under investigation, resulting in a conclusion that at least two nurses were prone to emitting violence. Another major incident was declared when, in 2004, a paranoid schizophrenic simply walked out of the hospital unchecked and stabbed an innocent, innocuous cyclist to death.
At its peak, Springfield housed 2,000 patients, though now reportedly has fewer than 300 as most of the site is completely disused, with plans to convert it into a residential site.
The Explore:
Shortly after an encounter with Police following a previous explore, @xplorer.x, @UrbandonedTeam, @The Excursionists and I headed off here for an evening explore.
We sat with acquiesce like bait in the NHS car park for a couple hours while two of our group attempted to find their way inside before we would do the same.
Once inside we had very little trouble; there was a faint pitter-patter of footsteps on the lower floors initially from security, but they seemingly faded after only twenty minutes or so.
We started from the top floor main corridor and slowly descended down the building. The first room I came to was ostensibly a small ward room because of the curtain rails on the wall.
The mirrors fortuitously remained un-smashed, which further added to the sense of natural decay that pullulated through the structure as opposed to violent criminal damage.
The main hall contained many extensive windows which encouraged the natural light to flood through since the power had been cut in the old block we were in at the time. Evidently this block had been previously stripped by workers, as the carpet was missing and all previous veneers had been removed from the room.
On the floor below, I found myself in a ward finally. As shown in the previous photo, the frippery had all but been stripped away and there was nothing of note left in the room except some dishevelled radiators and redundant light switches.
The natural decay in this place was breath-taking. Featured here is a bathroom still bedecked with medical equipment in the form of personal bathing barriers that take the role of a curtain. The light colours in this room added perfectly to the ambience and majestic calm Springfield embraced.
Finally I was able to get this infamous shot that is so notorious of Springfield; all the beds being left so immutably in place gave an indescribable aura of historical semblance which will resonate so profoundly with anybody who’s dealt with medical environments, since we can now observe the opulence of such a structure, while history tells a different story of the patients that would have been mistreated and even brutally attacked in some cases right in this very room.
Another ward pictured here, this time furnished with such extravagance as a carpet.
This room exhibited more of a nature theme than the others with the vines emanating from the cracked windows.
A view of the main, central corridor which contained the tributaries to each individual room/ward from the centre of the building.
Most of the rooms had been stripped, like this one for storage, though the peeling and standardised paint job collectively harnessed this institutions archaic past.
In the eleventh hour we culminated the explore with the more modern section which still had electricity running through it. Despite the obvious construction spray-paint, it was a cordial ending which contrasted greatly with the foregoing rooms of decay and extravagance.
I hasten to add that this block may not entirely live up to my proclamation of ‘full power’, though nevertheless the rooms that did still light up were fantastic to photograph because of the apparent lack of modern structural planning in allocating window space in the new building…
Thanks for reading!
