Cane Hill Asylum, Surrey. September 2007

RA181 · Mar 16, 2008

On one rather bracing September morning, RA and a fellow exploring friend set off to infiltrate one of the UK's most infamous of loony bins...Cane Hill. Built in 1882, this lumbering "Radiating Pavillion" style asylum has been left derelict and festering for 15 years and has been gnawing away at the darker cavities of my mind for the past 4. Once both my feet were firmly planted in its interior I had time to take stock of the fact that finally...I was in.

Here are the photos...

A sad sight for a musician

A few interesting things about Cane...

-Architect: Charles Henry Howell
-The water tower of the asylum still houses a low-power analogue television repeater belonging to National Grid Wireless.
-Ex patients include: mother of Charlie Chaplin, and the brothers of Michael Caine and David Bowie.
-The original cover of The Man Who Sold The World by Bowie features the administration block of the hospital.
-An attempt to list the buildings in 2006 failed; it did have local interest (in particular the Administration Block and the Chapel) but better examples of early echelon asylums exist. Which is inaccurate as Cane Hill is not an early echelon asylum; it's an unique example of a transitional type, best described as "Radiating Pavillion".
-The hospital is in the middle of the London green belt which has hindered development plans and resulted in the ongoing decay and neglect of the buildings and surrounding area.

Many thanks to a good exploring mate for introducing me to the Hill

RA

Foxylady · Mar 16, 2008

Excellent pics, RA. Particularly like the window and the door..don't recall seeing those features before. Thanks for the history and info too, as it's always easy to forget or skim over some of the facts which help round out our understanding of a place.

Cheers

reddwarf9 · Mar 16, 2008

Thats a great looking place and nice reporting. Its the fact that its been left empty for 15 years that makes it so interesting to us i guess.

Well done.

Nick.

King Al · Mar 17, 2008

Sounds like you had a good time, Nice pics, love that Chapel

smileysal · Mar 17, 2008

That is a sad sight to see, the piano lying on its back with all the strings and hammers wide open.

Love that skylight, thats a lovely shot, as is the glass door and the window. Like the date on the front of admin. Lots of shots in your thread that i havent seen at all before. Lovely pics,

Cheers,

Sal

Midnight · Mar 17, 2008

Nice one RA ... lol i missed this thread completely! brilliant photos and love the facts... i remember trying to get the newspapers from the time charlie chaplins mother went inside, no such luck!

freebird · Mar 17, 2008

Wow the chapel looks quite impressive. Nice pics.

stehayphoto · Sep 10, 2009

This is amazing. I would love to shoot here. Where abouts is it in Surrey? And was it easy to get inside? Thanks.

Winchester · Sep 10, 2009

stehayphoto said:
This is amazing. I would love to shoot here. Where abouts is it in Surrey? And was it easy to get inside? Thanks.

2L8M8....

PinkMini · Sep 10, 2009

It's been demolished?!

Winchester · Sep 10, 2009

Demo has been going on since July 2008...

Richard Davies · Sep 10, 2009

I was wondering if anyone have visited it recently to see what was left.

mookster · Sep 11, 2009

We went back in June to attempt the chapel, we would have done it but were thwarted by a fire engine and fire men on site, there'd obviously been a fire in one of the wards because there looked to be fresh fire damage to the roof

tbkscott · Sep 11, 2009

Nice pics RA, love the interior of the church, nice one mate

dangerous dave · Sep 11, 2009

admin water tower and chapel remain thats it as of tues this week job is done cane hill is no more

Winchester · Sep 11, 2009

mookster said:
We went back in June to attempt the chapel, we would have done it but were thwarted by a fire engine and fire men on site, there'd obviously been a fire in one of the wards because there looked to be fresh fire damage to the roof

Nope, they keep a fire engine on site to douse the dust down.

V/V and C/C were both fire damaged, I think VV was demolished more recently than C/C

mookster · Sep 11, 2009

ahh that'd be why then....our route in would've involved going directly across the front of the fire engine with men inside it so we gave up in the end

klempner69 · Sep 11, 2009

Any pics of the site would be appreciated at this end however sad.

Pete · Sep 11, 2009

I had a brief wander around yesterday. There is very little left intact of the main complex now aside from admin the water tower, chinmey and the chapel. A small section of Queens/Olave verandah is still standing, as was stub of Salter/Shaftesbury, the old nurse's block with a big hole in the side/roof, and a thin wedge of the centre of Hill/Harvard/Hogarth was being crunched as i watched. One of the back male wards seems to be still standing too, prob Wren/Wesley. I took some pics which i will put up once i've charged the phone i took them on.