Hello all!
It is with a certain sadness that I post my first report...
Hellingly Hospital, aka The East Sussex County Asylum, first opened in 1903. It was designed by G.T Hine, one of the famous Victorian asylum architects. It was huge, covering over 25 hectares, and in its heyday housing many hundreds of patients. It did not fully close down until 1994. I am sure that many of you are quite familiar with this site, from what I have read it was hailed as something of the urban explorers paradise. Seeing photographs of its fantastic sprawling architecture it really isn't hard to see why.
I was unfortunate enough to not find out about this specific site until last week. Of course I got myself there as quickly as I could, but I was too late, and by the look of it not by a small margin.
The majority of the site is now under demolition, and what remains has largely been gutted.
Although progress is inevitable and essential, I find it sad that a fascinating historical relic has been bulldozed to make way for another anonymous housing estate. Frankly I cant believe that this building was not listed.
There is however one building in the complex still standing empty on the north side of the estate. I will provide a report of this next week.
IMAGES
In order to provide some context to this report, this map details the building as it stands currently. This is as accurate as I can provide, as exploring the entire site is difficult and somewhat dangerous:
East side:
Interiors:
Remains of East side:
Interiors in Main Building S:
West Side:
Upstairs Main building S:
East and south side:
As you can see, the building is in a dangerous condition, we were kitted out with masks, but in the end decided that the structural integrity of the place just wasn't sound enough to go wandering properly.
VIDEO
I managed to capture a few short film clips, they are nothing special but should give a an idea of what we were seeing. They can be viewed via the youtube links below.
NOTE: These videos are unlisted, meaning that they are not openly available to all on youtube. You will need these links to view them.
[nomedia]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-AJNUarifo[/nomedia]
[nomedia]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJn0_tuaGbY[/nomedia]
[nomedia]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYcb1ingSKk[/nomedia]
[nomedia]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ7C54FRRos[/nomedia]
Love Leeloo
It is with a certain sadness that I post my first report...
Hellingly Hospital, aka The East Sussex County Asylum, first opened in 1903. It was designed by G.T Hine, one of the famous Victorian asylum architects. It was huge, covering over 25 hectares, and in its heyday housing many hundreds of patients. It did not fully close down until 1994. I am sure that many of you are quite familiar with this site, from what I have read it was hailed as something of the urban explorers paradise. Seeing photographs of its fantastic sprawling architecture it really isn't hard to see why.
I was unfortunate enough to not find out about this specific site until last week. Of course I got myself there as quickly as I could, but I was too late, and by the look of it not by a small margin.
The majority of the site is now under demolition, and what remains has largely been gutted.
Although progress is inevitable and essential, I find it sad that a fascinating historical relic has been bulldozed to make way for another anonymous housing estate. Frankly I cant believe that this building was not listed.
There is however one building in the complex still standing empty on the north side of the estate. I will provide a report of this next week.
IMAGES
In order to provide some context to this report, this map details the building as it stands currently. This is as accurate as I can provide, as exploring the entire site is difficult and somewhat dangerous:
East side:
Interiors:
Remains of East side:
Interiors in Main Building S:
West Side:
Upstairs Main building S:
East and south side:
As you can see, the building is in a dangerous condition, we were kitted out with masks, but in the end decided that the structural integrity of the place just wasn't sound enough to go wandering properly.
VIDEO
I managed to capture a few short film clips, they are nothing special but should give a an idea of what we were seeing. They can be viewed via the youtube links below.
NOTE: These videos are unlisted, meaning that they are not openly available to all on youtube. You will need these links to view them.
[nomedia]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-AJNUarifo[/nomedia]
[nomedia]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJn0_tuaGbY[/nomedia]
[nomedia]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYcb1ingSKk[/nomedia]
[nomedia]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ7C54FRRos[/nomedia]
Love Leeloo