Hellingly Hospital November 09

Today didn't get off to the best of starts - the cash machine in Guildford Railway station ate my card and my exploring buddy for the day was seriously delayed by traffic, but we eventually made our way over to Hellingly for one last trip round the place as I really wanted to see the stuff I didn't have a chance to see earlier this year. It's a shame Ralphie couldn't make it though.

The way in was, how shall I put it....sharp...we must have got stabbed thousands of times by brambles, and on the way out it was worse as my buddy ended up stuck in a hole whilst I grabbed a branch that then broke plunging my hand into a whole load of brambles and then a tree stump got rather intimate with my ankle, we did have a good laugh about it though as it was rather funny

This trip to Hellingly was one of my favourite explores I've been on so far, everything about it was just spot on, the asylum itself was seemingly alive with the recent rainwater pouring off roofs, the wind literally howling down corridors and through the many broken/missing windows and most exciting of all the sounds of excavators and bulldozers just outside accompanying us for much of the explore which was an extra thrill. The near-miss with security also added an extra something to it

Here's a little snippet of history as I'm sure most people know the story by now

Sitting on top of a hill overlooking the East Sussex Countryside sits the battered remains of Hellingly hospital, Formerly Hellingly Asylum. Hellingly is a prime example of the "splendid isolation" design philosophy that is present in the design of many institutional buildings of this era.

Hellingly was designed by architect GT Hine and built to a late Victorian design during a period of massive expansion for mental health facilities in Britain. Hellingly First opened its doors to patients in 1903 and continued to serve the local community for almost the next 90 years. As with so many other asylums a change in policy on the treatment of many patients meant closure of the majority of buildings in 1994.

The Hospital today has suffered over 10 years of neglect badly, arson has destroyed several buildings most notably the administration block. Vandals have been systematically removing all the windows, the easier to access ground floor areas have received the brunt of these attacks.

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I've tried to avoid the cliched Hellingly shots (apart from the obvious...)in this report and hopefully have brought something new-ish

First port of call was of course the main hall




Then it was time for a leisurely tromp through the rest of the asylum

















we had fun teasing these pigeons























and lastly a parting shot over the site...



The rest of my pics will be on my Flickr at some point

Interesting report, some good shots!
Shame about the brambles but i suppose no pain no game

cheers - It was painful but worth it, I don't understand why people need to use big metal fences when all they need is a thicket of brambles

Flickr finally worked late last night so here is the full set http://www.flickr.com/photos/mookie427/sets/72157622818582054/

mookster said:

It's a shame Ralphie couldn't make it though.

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I really regret this, came as came, bloody Monday was so busy(trucks delays) we try next time I promise

wheres the pictures?

Enjoyed looking through ya pics (whilst they were there!)

Even though it's free, PhotoBucket seems to be hitting with some low punches recently

oh fergodsake useless photobucket

hurrah! thank goodness for Flickr! Pics should be back now albeit a teeny bit smaller

ahhh nice to see them, are the stair case shots from the nurses block by any chance?

Nice photos mookster, a few things I haven't seen before like the dentist's chair.

chubs said:

ahhh nice to see them, are the stair case shots from the nurses block by any chance?

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I'm guessing that's where they were located, although on both occasions I've been to Hellingly I've ended up hopelessly disorientated which is sort of fun

lost said:

Nice photos mookster, a few things I haven't seen before like the dentist's chair.

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the dentist's chair was a nice surprise, I didn't even know about it either until we stumbled upon the room with them in!

There were a couple of locked rooms when I visited a few years ago, surprisingly. Maybe they are in one of them. I think there's another dentist's chair in the burnt out admin block.

Man I love this place, I'll never tire of seein photos from hellingly, such a shame to see it go! and yeah, I always get horribly disorientated there as well, we went once in the evening and I have no idea how we managed to get out again, was just luck we got out somewhere near the car!

when we were there we were walking through the upstairs of one of the wards and the place really is just a sprawling maze, we ventured up one staircase and then found out we'd basically done one massive loop around most of the main buildings and ended up almost back where we'd started (the room with the 'neglect' graffiti), we also stumbled across the same corridor 3 times each time from a different direction

mookster said:

when we were there we were walking through the upstairs of one of the wards and the place really is just a sprawling maze, we ventured up one staircase and then found out we'd basically done one massive loop around most of the main buildings and ended up almost back where we'd started (the room with the 'neglect' graffiti), we also stumbled across the same corridor 3 times each time from a different direction

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its easy to wonder around the same parts, ive always been fine wondering around hellingly, but i have got a huge map of it on my wall.

chubs said:

its easy to wonder around the same parts, ive always been fine wondering around hellingly, but i have got a huge map of it on my wall.

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I'd love something like that all we had was an A4 paper with the aerial view from google maps plus some hastily scribbled directions!