The alarm went off. It was 2 am. Already the sky was lightening as we headed across Yorkshire to the north east. By 5.30 we were parked up, dodging the dog walkers and into St Mary's.
This place was George Hine's , Consultant architect to the Commissioners in Lunacy, last work. It opened in 1914 and closed in 1995.
It was named after the church in nearby Stannington, and was taken over by the Ministry of Defence during the Great War. Today it is slowly decaying. No worries though; there's a lot to see here.
This one had some great colours in, although the stagnant water was not suitable for drinking.
At some time in the past, rubbish had been piled in the main hall way of the administration building.
This large room was a great place, very calm and in lovely condition. The wooden shelving held clothing, sorted into different sizes.
A lot of ferns inside a common room.
I fear this beautiful hall, with its dodgy floor is faring badly.
The early morning sun cast beautiful light inside the building, creating a warm and bright feel to the place.
Most of the hospital isn't boarded, allowing natural light to give more of an idea about how each room may have looked when they were used.
I've not been round an asylum before, and really enjoyed the explore. It was nice not having a map and "finding" the places that we knew were there. It is good that you get lots of different shots. The large hall, close up detail, peeling dereliction and the ridiculously over saturated corridor shot.
An obligatory trip to Snips for a quick shampoo and set.
The chapel was silent and felt safe and warm.
Supergrainy shot of the marvellous pedal organ.
An early start was beginning to catch up now, and it would have been easy to have missed out the nurses home. I am glad I didn't.
Empty rooms, each with their own marvellous state of decay.
I do like to find time for stairs shots.
I guess this was a ballroom. Today the floor is in a bad way, and has collapsed in one corner of the room.
The morgue.
Very well preserved mortuary slab. It's one thing seeing pictures of them on the internet, but different when you see them for real.
This place was George Hine's , Consultant architect to the Commissioners in Lunacy, last work. It opened in 1914 and closed in 1995.
It was named after the church in nearby Stannington, and was taken over by the Ministry of Defence during the Great War. Today it is slowly decaying. No worries though; there's a lot to see here.
This one had some great colours in, although the stagnant water was not suitable for drinking.
At some time in the past, rubbish had been piled in the main hall way of the administration building.
This large room was a great place, very calm and in lovely condition. The wooden shelving held clothing, sorted into different sizes.
A lot of ferns inside a common room.
I fear this beautiful hall, with its dodgy floor is faring badly.
The early morning sun cast beautiful light inside the building, creating a warm and bright feel to the place.
Most of the hospital isn't boarded, allowing natural light to give more of an idea about how each room may have looked when they were used.
I've not been round an asylum before, and really enjoyed the explore. It was nice not having a map and "finding" the places that we knew were there. It is good that you get lots of different shots. The large hall, close up detail, peeling dereliction and the ridiculously over saturated corridor shot.
An obligatory trip to Snips for a quick shampoo and set.
The chapel was silent and felt safe and warm.
Supergrainy shot of the marvellous pedal organ.
An early start was beginning to catch up now, and it would have been easy to have missed out the nurses home. I am glad I didn't.
Empty rooms, each with their own marvellous state of decay.
I do like to find time for stairs shots.
I guess this was a ballroom. Today the floor is in a bad way, and has collapsed in one corner of the room.
The morgue.
Very well preserved mortuary slab. It's one thing seeing pictures of them on the internet, but different when you see them for real.
