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Report - - The Last Bits of Hellingly Asylum, August 2015 | Asylums and Hospitals | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - The Last Bits of Hellingly Asylum, August 2015

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mookster

grumpy sod
Regular User
Hellingly Asylum occupies an extremely special place in my heart. Just over nine years ago it was the first place I ever explored and I, like many who had gone before me, instantly loved the place. Despite how utterly and totally ruined the asylum was, there was just something about it that everyone seemed to love. Maybe it was that it was one of only a few examples of asylums that were never really swallowed up in an urban sprawl during their lifetime and it's location outside a tiny village offered it total peace and serenity. Or maybe it was that there was largely never any security there so explorers had free reign over a huge asylum. Plus it had 'that' hall, the beautiful, iconic symbol which stood defiant until the very end, shrugging off so many efforts to burn it down and turn it into just another asylum with a lost hall like Severalls, Denbigh, West Park, Cane Hill etc.

I was lucky enough to visit the main body of Hellingly twice in 2009 - once before, and once just after demolition had begun. I always wished I could have visited it more but during that summer of 2009 it was West Park that took all my attention as well as the attention of most explorers who were around back then! Hellingly Asylum was almost completely demolished during 2010 and a new housing estate is built in it's place, even the water tower couldn't be saved. But then back in the summer of 2015 I saw a couple of photos from some buildings on the very edge of the asylum that had been spared demolition for whatever reason. The cluster of buildings included one which had remained open until 2010 as an admin office of sorts, and a couple that were proper vintage 1994 Hellingly closure. I knew I had to go back one last time and see them, and I'm so glad I did as the memories and feelings that came flooding back when I found myself stood inside bits of the asylum again were as unforgettable as that first step I took into Hellingly six years previous. We only got into two of the three buildings but I left feeling very happy.

I'm actually not sure what the status of these buildings is now, they could still be there but they probably aren't.

20873657710_b9d20194d0_b.jpg


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20439139354_8669458502_b.jpg


21069406481_7f0034bede_b.jpg


20873861608_ef0b4afd9e_b.jpg


And on into the building that closed along with the majority of the asylum in 1994. This is where the memories and feelings really came back for me. It was like being transported back to my very first explore.

21061746395_3def9b9626_b.jpg


20440685473_8b7f0c9492_b.jpg


21061734285_60e9d967b5_b.jpg


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Lastly it really wouldn't have been true Hellingly without a carpet draped over the beams from a collapsed floor.

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Thanks for looking :)
 

tumbles

Drama Queen
Staff member
Moderator
Nice work, good to see a few of those iconic glazed bricks. I only got to Hellingly twice - was never enough even in its sorry state
 

monk

mature
28DL Full Member
Bowhill is well under convertion might even be finished now, Homestead is still derelict, as for the surrounding area its about to be turned into shit box city.
 

mookster

grumpy sod
Regular User
Bowhill is well under convertion might even be finished now, Homestead is still derelict, as for the surrounding area its about to be turned into shit box city.

Not surprising really. Bowhill was ripe for conversion so it's great that they are actually saving it unlike the rest of the asylum!

When I was there the shitbox housing estate had already been about half finished, even though I had prepared myself for the sight of it I was still gutted going up The Drive.
 

Carry

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Hellingly Asylum occupies an extremely special place in my heart. Just over nine years ago it was the first place I ever explored and I, like many who had gone before me, instantly loved the place. Despite how utterly and totally ruined the asylum was, there was just something about it that everyone seemed to love. Maybe it was that it was one of only a few examples of asylums that were never really swallowed up in an urban sprawl during their lifetime and it's location outside a tiny village offered it total peace and serenity. Or maybe it was that there was largely never any security there so explorers had free reign over a huge asylum. Plus it had 'that' hall, the beautiful, iconic symbol which stood defiant until the very end, shrugging off so many efforts to burn it down and turn it into just another asylum with a lost hall like Severalls, Denbigh, West Park, Cane Hill etc.

I was lucky enough to visit the main body of Hellingly twice in 2009 - once before, and once just after demolition had begun. I always wished I could have visited it more but during that summer of 2009 it was West Park that took all my attention as well as the attention of most explorers who were around back then! Hellingly Asylum was almost completely demolished during 2010 and a new housing estate is built in it's place, even the water tower couldn't be saved. But then back in the summer of 2015 I saw a couple of photos from some buildings on the very edge of the asylum that had been spared demolition for whatever reason. The cluster of buildings included one which had remained open until 2010 as an admin office of sorts, and a couple that were proper vintage 1994 Hellingly closure. I knew I had to go back one last time and see them, and I'm so glad I did as the memories and feelings that came flooding back when I found myself stood inside bits of the asylum again were as unforgettable as that first step I took into Hellingly six years previous. We only got into two of the three buildings but I left feeling very happy.

I'm actually not sure what the status of these buildings is now, they could still be there but they probably aren't.

20873657710_b9d20194d0_b.jpg


20873716290_7ce9096b8e_b.jpg


20873904978_83e0237987_b.jpg


21035566846_ba20eca1ab_b.jpg


20874992819_bfbe23aaa2_b.jpg


20439152464_f9129a9c58_b.jpg


20439139354_8669458502_b.jpg


21069406481_7f0034bede_b.jpg


20873861608_ef0b4afd9e_b.jpg


And on into the building that closed along with the majority of the asylum in 1994. This is where the memories and feelings really came back for me. It was like being transported back to my very first explore.

21061746395_3def9b9626_b.jpg


20440685473_8b7f0c9492_b.jpg


21061734285_60e9d967b5_b.jpg


20873836308_5e819f8724_b.jpg


20439104054_3384c0b994_b.jpg


20873822568_d8d6b9c0b1_b.jpg


Lastly it really wouldn't have been true Hellingly without a carpet draped over the beams from a collapsed floor.

20440658353_ca59607799_b.jpg


Thanks for looking :)
 

Carry

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
I was a state registered student psychiatric nurse in that place appx 1971.

They put me in the geriatric senile ward as my first 'assignment'. I only lasted about 4 or 5 weeks & that was enough for me, awfull, non treatable human conditions.
I was satisfied in my own mind no patient in that ward would have wanted to live had they been exposed to see people affected by those type of brain disorders before they themselves were struck down with them/it.
 
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