The History
St. John's Hospital began life in August 1852 when it opened as Lincolnshire County Asylum as one of the first-wave Victorian county asylums built in response to the 1845 Lunacy Act. It is constructed from pale local stone in an Italianate renaissance-inspired style, and is quite impressive if not looking slightly out of place. It was built in the corridor plan typical of the time, with a long linear corridor spanning from the admin and hall at the centre to the wards east and west. The females wards were on the east side of the hospital with the male wards on the west. The hospital building was added to over the next few years following its opening as it began with capacity for 250 patients, but was expanded in 1889 to accomodate 680 patients. By its height in the early 20th century, it could accomodate 944. The chapel was built in 1897. The hospital served until 1989 when it finally closed, similar to timing to most of the country's other mental hospitals following the 'care in the community' act. The site was bought for residential conversion although progress has been slow, with the female east side and admin only having been completed and works currently underway on the rear of the hospital. The hospital had a fairly minimal thin concrete water tower although this was demolished in 2012. This video is an excellent short documentary on the hosital and its history with interviews from staff.
Initial Visit - March 2023
I've been wanting to take a look at this place for a few years now, but had no idea if it was still doable as redevelopment works began some time ago and I hadn't seen any reports in a long time. It's been abandoned for a long long while, even longer than I've been alive and was popular back in the asylum 'golden era', but unlike nearly all the others much of the building has avoided conversion or demolition.
I'd seen the pictures of Rauceby popping up online and whilst it didn't look particularly great, I felt I'd regret it if I didn't see it before it goes or changes. So we drove for three hours on a Sunday morning and checked out Rauceby, whilst encountering about seven different groups of local chavs trapsing round the wide open site. It was honestly pretty crap and we felt the journey so far had not been worthwhile, even if the exteriors of a few buildings are still worth seeing and photographing, so we wanted to find more.
Being up in Lincolnshire I thought it would be worth stopping at St. Johns to at least scope it out for future and see if it was now all converted, and this is where it got interesting. I first photographed the converted admin block and east side, and then started to see if access to the derelict west wing was still possible. It was now essentially a building site with heavy machinery and materials lying around the open courtyard. It also has cameras around most of the fence, and has locals walking around the outside often. Two of us scouted the way in before realising I'd forgotten my camera and it was about to get good.
We went back out to collect our friend and the camera, and then headed back in. It was starting to get dark by this time, and the floor was incredibly rotten. Do be careful, it's seriously dangerous here, really not one to do on your own. Climbing into the mouldy interior, we were immediatley met with period features of the Victorian asylum, including the honeycomb barrel vaulted ceilings reminiscent of Warley asylum in Essex I never got to see. This pattern of brickwork is thought to have helped with fire surpression, although is often said perhaps erroneously to help keep noise of the troubled souls inside down.
We found ourselves in a large dayroom or similar with a semi-circular shape on one side and lots of yellow siderooms around it. A pillar in the middle was decorated with a painted floral pattern, all pretty cool. We weaved our way around the crispy soggy uneven floor and into the next few rooms. Being quite dark, it was quite difficult having much peripheral awareness and the dodgy floor didn't help, so we didn't venture around the upstairs and headed back after reaching a section with a light on at the end of the wallway. Even if it wasn't much, it felt special to see something thought to be long-gone.
St. John's Hospital began life in August 1852 when it opened as Lincolnshire County Asylum as one of the first-wave Victorian county asylums built in response to the 1845 Lunacy Act. It is constructed from pale local stone in an Italianate renaissance-inspired style, and is quite impressive if not looking slightly out of place. It was built in the corridor plan typical of the time, with a long linear corridor spanning from the admin and hall at the centre to the wards east and west. The females wards were on the east side of the hospital with the male wards on the west. The hospital building was added to over the next few years following its opening as it began with capacity for 250 patients, but was expanded in 1889 to accomodate 680 patients. By its height in the early 20th century, it could accomodate 944. The chapel was built in 1897. The hospital served until 1989 when it finally closed, similar to timing to most of the country's other mental hospitals following the 'care in the community' act. The site was bought for residential conversion although progress has been slow, with the female east side and admin only having been completed and works currently underway on the rear of the hospital. The hospital had a fairly minimal thin concrete water tower although this was demolished in 2012. This video is an excellent short documentary on the hosital and its history with interviews from staff.
Initial Visit - March 2023
I've been wanting to take a look at this place for a few years now, but had no idea if it was still doable as redevelopment works began some time ago and I hadn't seen any reports in a long time. It's been abandoned for a long long while, even longer than I've been alive and was popular back in the asylum 'golden era', but unlike nearly all the others much of the building has avoided conversion or demolition.
I'd seen the pictures of Rauceby popping up online and whilst it didn't look particularly great, I felt I'd regret it if I didn't see it before it goes or changes. So we drove for three hours on a Sunday morning and checked out Rauceby, whilst encountering about seven different groups of local chavs trapsing round the wide open site. It was honestly pretty crap and we felt the journey so far had not been worthwhile, even if the exteriors of a few buildings are still worth seeing and photographing, so we wanted to find more.
Being up in Lincolnshire I thought it would be worth stopping at St. Johns to at least scope it out for future and see if it was now all converted, and this is where it got interesting. I first photographed the converted admin block and east side, and then started to see if access to the derelict west wing was still possible. It was now essentially a building site with heavy machinery and materials lying around the open courtyard. It also has cameras around most of the fence, and has locals walking around the outside often. Two of us scouted the way in before realising I'd forgotten my camera and it was about to get good.
We went back out to collect our friend and the camera, and then headed back in. It was starting to get dark by this time, and the floor was incredibly rotten. Do be careful, it's seriously dangerous here, really not one to do on your own. Climbing into the mouldy interior, we were immediatley met with period features of the Victorian asylum, including the honeycomb barrel vaulted ceilings reminiscent of Warley asylum in Essex I never got to see. This pattern of brickwork is thought to have helped with fire surpression, although is often said perhaps erroneously to help keep noise of the troubled souls inside down.
We found ourselves in a large dayroom or similar with a semi-circular shape on one side and lots of yellow siderooms around it. A pillar in the middle was decorated with a painted floral pattern, all pretty cool. We weaved our way around the crispy soggy uneven floor and into the next few rooms. Being quite dark, it was quite difficult having much peripheral awareness and the dodgy floor didn't help, so we didn't venture around the upstairs and headed back after reaching a section with a light on at the end of the wallway. Even if it wasn't much, it felt special to see something thought to be long-gone.
