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Report - - Whittingham Asylum, Preston, Lancashire. April 2014 | Asylums and Hospitals | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Whittingham Asylum, Preston, Lancashire. April 2014

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urbexpreston

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Visited Whittingham for the sixth time in as many weeks today with two others and bumped into auntiesknickers made me want to post some of my pics. This is my first report and the pics are only taken on my phone, so please go easy.
Demolition has really ramped up now and its only a matter of weeks before this site is confined to history. The Cameron buildings are almost gone now as are most of the corridors linking the main sites buildings, if your thinking of going soon don't leave it too long !
This morning there were as many urbexers as demo workers on site, we met auntiesknickers inside near the main hall and two guys outside round the back who informed us they had been in the water tower ! Finally conquered the water tower today then, the views are special.




History

Whittingham Hospital was a psychiatric hospital in the parish of Whittingham, near Preston, Lancashire, England.

The hospital was founded in 1869 and grew to be the largest mental hospital in Britain, and pioneered the use of electroencephalograms (EEGs). During its time it had its own church, farms, railway, telephone exchange, post office, reservoirs, gas works, brewery, orchestra, brass band, ballroom and butchers.

The hospital officially opened on 1 April 1873. In 1878 a new annexe (later known as St. John's Division) was built on 68 acres of land to the north of the site. The annexe was completed in 1880 and accommodated 115 patients and, by the special agreement of the Postmaster General, the hospital's own dedicated Post Office. In 1884, a sanatorium was established in the grounds for patients with infectious diseases.

In 1892 works began for the grounds to be illuminated by electric lamps; these works were completed in 1894. Around this time an annexe called Cameron House was opened to the northwest of the main building, joined in 1912 by a third annexe, later to become known as St Margaret's division. By 1915 the number of inmates was recorded as 2,820 - more than double the asylum's original capacity. In 1918 the New West Annexe (St Margaret's) was commandeered for the treatment of war casualties: patients who died during treatment were buried in the institution's private cemetery at the northern edge of the site.

In 1923, the name 'Whittingham Asylum' was dropped in favour of "Whittingham Mental Hospital". By 1939, the number of patients was 3533, with a staff of 548, making it the largest mental hospital in Great Britain.

It closed in 1995.

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breathtaking views
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who goes there !
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beauty and the beast
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The Stig

Urbex = Nosey Bastard
28DL Full Member
Hi there Welcome to the site, it was myself who chatted to you yesterday :) Got some good pictures there,sorting though mine and get some of them posted, Hope to see some more of your furture explores :thumbs
 

urbexpreston

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Good to chat to you in there stig. I will post some more stuff from site visits from the last few weeks. Cheers mate
 

Seffy

SWC
Staff member
Moderator
Nice one, never did manage to find a way up the water tower.

Yeah me neither. Wish I could have seen it, in all it's glory, from the top of the tower.. That would be sweet. Also wish it wasn't so damn far away to be honest!
 

ACID- REFLUX

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Nice Pics :) And glad you"ve posted

So these exterior shots answer my question regarding them taking all the corridors and small buildings/extensions out while leaving the main buildings intact....for now :)

They"ve been pretty active on the Demo" but that said it wouldn"t have taken much for it to collapse anyway after Mother Natures done most of the work for them over the years :)

Must have saved them tens of thousands of £"s in Demo" time as well;) Bless it
 

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