Denbigh Mental Asylum... North Wales
Getting bored this summer, we decided it would be fitting to drive around the UK on a country wide tour. Covering thousands of miles, hours worth of research and weeks of exploring non-stop, this tour has been a highlight of my exploring history.
After hitting many locations throughout South and Mid Wales, we headed North and happened to find ourselves inside Denbigh Mental Asylum... Not a clue how that happened!
Denbigh Mental Asylum is a Grade II listed building that started it's life in 1848. It was once a small hospital that housed just 200 people however, by the early 1900's, it housed around 1500 patients and staff.
Designed by architect Thomas Fulljames to originally accommodate between 60 and 200 patients, the hospital originally had its own farm and gasworks. However, planned for closure during the 1960's, it was closed in sections between 1991 and 1995.
On November 2008, during work to renovate the building site and convert it to apartments, the building caught fire. It was later confirmed that the main hall of the hospital had been destroyed.
Denbigh Mental Asylum is currently on the buildings at risk register leaving Denbighshire Council no choice but to carry out repairs on the building which reached £939,000.
Despite talks of new planning permission being in place and the building having so much potential, nothing seems to actually be happening within the site. Local Police have increased patrols which was noted during our visit but this doesn't seem to prevent the local youths going onto the site to smash even more up!
Despite not bumping into the usual wannabe security (is he even still around?!), after climbing to the highest point that I could find, it wasn't long until I got to meet the local plod. They were fairly decent to be fair and after a nice chat, we were allowed to walk out by ourselves... being happy with the fact we had seen everything we wanted too, it was time to leave.
With the Police seeming to follow us as we drove to the local Morrisons, it was time to leave the area, next location, back to South Wales for The Coal Exchange!