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Report - - St Crispin's Lunatic Asylum - Northamptonshire Sept 2010 | Asylums and Hospitals | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - St Crispin's Lunatic Asylum - Northamptonshire Sept 2010

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Ryanham

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
St Crispins was a large psychiatric hospital on the outskirts of Duston in Northamptonshire, England.
It was established in the 1876 as the Berrywood Asylum. It closed in 1995 and its grounds are being developed into a new mental hospital, set to open in May 2010.
Before the opening of the St Crispin Hospital in 1876, the paupers of Northampton were admitted to the Northampton General Asylum to the East of Northampton. With the Lunacy Commission pushing for every county to have their own asylum and not send paupers out to other Asylums, this arrangement was deemed unworthy and the county encourage to build their own premises. The county purchased land at the small village of Berrywood, and the asylum was founded shortly after in 1873 and was designed by Robert Griffiths. The construction took three years and was opened in 1876 to the paupers who were living interned at the Northampton General Asylum.

And now some details on the visit:

Three of us visited as we where in Northampton for the weekend. Upon arriving I was blown away by the clock tower, as I'd never been to an Asylum with one before. Unfortunately I didn't realise how stripped and bare this place was, there is literally nothing left in most of the buildings.

However it was great to just wander around this huge place but the three main parts that made the explore worth it were the Great Hall, although destroyed mostly by a fire, the scaffolding was amazing to climb up on and get some nice shots. Also the shower block was a nice little surprise, I'd seen the photograph of the 'Bloody' Handprints on the wall before but had no Idea it was here. Last but by no means least, the Clock Tower! It took us about 20 minutes to find and navigate our way there having up go up onto roofs and over broken floors we made it and the climb up is... different, and includes climbing up a pitch black pipe on a ladder.

As soon as we reached the actual bell tower we were met with spectacular views of the site and surrounding lands, and also with the sight of three Police Officers climbing in through the same place we came in. They looked around and shouted to each other for about 30 minutes then left, oblivious to the fact that we were watching them all the time!

On with the photographs, I decided on a Black and White documentation:

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The Great Hall:
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One of the Ward Corridors, nothing is left:
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The Shower Block:
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Our final goal:
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The Clock Mechanism:
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The views were spectacular:
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