Cherry Knowle Asylum, Sunderland. Look what they've done to the organ! PIC INTENSIVE.

Here are some piccies from Cherry Knowle which we visited yesterday. Quite an interesting 'splore despite the obvious demo on site. It's sad we didn't get here sooner because as recently as June this year the pix on other peep's reports show a lot more standing and just begging to be photographed. The admin block is completely gone now and as you'll see from our pix even the theatre and chapel are in an advanced state of demolition.

What really REALLY p*ssed me off though was seeing the chapel organ totally trashed... as a keyboard player that's so bl**dy sacriligious!!! There was an indecently large amount of asbestos about, especially in the ward block alongside the chapel, which worried us a little as we had no respirators with us... duh! Anyhow there was so much water about I doubt the stuff would be "up" in the air as dust but I really must try not to be so careless next time!

We entered the site whilst the demo team were still working... in most areas of the building trade everyone knocks off about half four... not this lot, so we were forced to doss in a damp field for 45 minutes. And even then when we came around the side of the ward block we almost walked into the secca and some of the demo guys having a chat! It's only the fact that they had their backs to us that we weren't spotted. It's odd how even a bright orange jacket can take on the look of something else when it isn't moving!

Anyways, I'm not attempting to write any history here on Cherry Knowle... I don't know it is why! Hope you like the pix and if anyone has any interesting info on this and any of the other however many asylums that used to exist I'd be glad to hear it together with any book recommendations.


The view down towards the hospital with the North Sea in the distance. The location is beautiful...





View along the back side of the hospital where the airing courts and gardens were...




Inside now just behind where the admin block used to be...





Foot stool...





Decay...





Nurses accomodation?





Lockers...





Shoe...





Stairs...





A greenhouse in a former bedroom!





You don't see classy decor like this in Ikea!





Roof fall!





Open to the skies now...





Knobby!





Time we called this meeting to a close...





One of the ward wings...





Psycho party from hell!





The table is set for the guests!





Ladies and gentlemen, the King has left the building!





Guidance...





Every one a Rembrandt - a patient's oil painting dumped in a forgotten room, just one of many we saw there. It's not my kind of art but I came awfully close to forgetting the urb-ex mantra "take nothing but photos" because I found it very poignant finding an expression of someone's soul rotting when it should be in a museum somewhere ...





Just hop up onto the couch please and tell me the first thing that pops into your head...





Erm... a flower?





Tattered...





Beyond the holes you can see in the wall, a corridor led off to the main entrance and admin building. Demo have removed it all now right up to the theatre/chapel block...





...and they are systematically removing ALL the floor boards on both levels...





Demo and site security...





The chapel minus a large proportion of it's floor...





Stained glass...





This REALLY makes my blood boil...





Stops - "The Lieblich Gedeckt has been made of both wood and metal. Audsley states a preference for wood, while Bonavia-Hunt insists that its distinctive timbre must be produced by metal pipes. Even when of metal, the 16' and 8' octaves are often of wood. This stop is characterized by a very high cut-up, sometimes even greater than the width of the mouth"... so there!





Chapel mural...





Wasteland...





Colours...





Washroom mirrors...





Bay window...





Sentinels? The chapel roof...





Self portrait...





Paradoxically this view of the front of the chapel block must be a very recent thing because it would have been hidden by the admin block in the past!





Bars...





Bum wad!





A secure area door release perhaps or a general alarm button?





Red Accy engineering brick lasts forever...





There's nothing worse than when you spot somewhere you missed but you're already outside again! Look at that inviting little door on a tower wing all of it's own!

Ya know this just breaks my heart! Such a sad end to a beautiful building. Lovely pics tho guys. I enjoyed looking, though it was with a heavy heart....

cherry knowles

been there a couple of times but never been able to get in, great to finally see inside, great pics

yeh well demo crews are not really Known for having a light touch,this was our first English asylum/ Foreign asylum trip with the other now defunct St.Marys very sad

Jesus the sites gone down hill recently

PaulPowers said:

Jesus the sites gone down hill recently

Click to expand...

Unbelievable isn't it... and in just two or three months!

A crackin report with good photo's !! What a (once) beautiful site !! Such a shame to see the legalised vandalism in progress !!Thanx for posting !!

Great photos and such a shame to see it go.

This might sound weird but I have a lot of happy childhood memories from here - my dad was a nurse at Cherry and I remember the Christmas parties for all the staff's kids in the hall and the fireworks on Bonfire Night

Yes, it's really tragic what they have done to these fine old buildings; is nothing worth preserving? They've made a right mess of the organ. Anyway, a great collection of pictures.

GraceB said:

This might sound weird but I have a lot of happy childhood memories from here

Click to expand...

It was a happy asylum then? You hear such horror stories about so many of the asylums, some of the worst being from Whitty and Highroyds. If anyone is interested there's a seriously horrible story on:

http://www.highroydsarchive.co.uk/id16.html

from Highroyds. It staggered me when I read it.

Thanks for your kind comments.

M and TJ

Thanks for the pictures! Great job!

Does anyone know if it's still standing now? Really want to visit It's such an awful shame to see yet another beautiful, old building get demolished

Also, is St.Marys in Stannington still standing?

Great report and pics,love the captions
What a fab location right by the sea as well.

There seems to be a pathological need to demolish all old asylums currently.

This is a carbon copy of one of a very similar design near to us called Kingsway,which we have been following with several visits during its current demolition.

They are only demolishing it to build crappy matchbox clone houses that no one wants or can afford,I would place a bet its perhaps the same with yours.

curiousmoggy said:

Thanks for the pictures! Great job!

Does anyone know if it's still standing now? Really want to visit It's such an awful shame to see yet another beautiful, old building get demolished

Also, is St.Marys in Stannington still standing?

Click to expand...

Thanks for your kind comments. I can only comment on what I saw earlier in the year when we went over to both those asylums. St. Mary's was demo'd down to the wards blocks but the central linking corridors etc are all gone. That has left them free standing units and to ready them for conversion to flats they have stripped them internally back to bare brick walls. The theatre was still standing and the admin block however we could NOT get across the wide open central space to admin due to there being demolition workers on site. A big pre-fab building was still standing too but one heavy gust of wind would probably bring it down if it isn't down already. There was a completely seperate unit in the woods that was almost untouched but heavily chavved together with a couple of semi detached houses in the same state.I am told the chapel is still intact though we didn't even see it let alone explore it. It's still worth a look and access was easy but it's a shadow of it's former self.

A per pro Cherry Knowle... the rate they were demolishing it (a conservative estimate = 60% dropped and ground to brick dust in 2 to 3 months) then I'll be surprised if it's worth the effort now though I've seen these projects grind to an ignominious halt and stay in stasis for years! Take a peep, you might get a pleasant surprise.

PM me if you want to know anymore. Our St. Marys pix are also in here somewhere, just go via our thread list or search with the search facility at the top of the page.

Good luck.

johno23 said:

Great report and pics,love the captions
What a fab location right by the sea as well.

Click to expand...

We thought that too though speaking to someone who lives close he says it's bl**dy bleak in the winter! They used to literally wake the patients, feed them and then lock them outdoors for most of the day at many asylums during the less caring times pre 70s so I shudder to think how bad it must have been at Cherry Knowle in the winter being locked out with only a few pavilions to shelter in.

johno23 said:

This is a carbon copy of one of a very similar design near to us called Kingsway

Click to expand...

That's one we have been considering doing for a while but we haven't bothered because we heard there was very little left now and it was tucked up extremely tight in terms of fencing, security etc. We went over to Aston Hall instead and whilst that's well and truly trashed it wasn't a bad little explore.

Cheers...

I thought there would've been more gone by now.

Great report as usual

Such a shame to see it in such a state.

Glad you got to look around before it's all gone.

You had the wife with you, I'm dam sure mine would not go along. Some great photo's, love the sentinels one best.

night crawler said:

You had the wife with you, I'm dam sure mine would not go along. Some great photo's, love the sentinels one best.

Click to expand...

Ah no, that's not how it is! She's the mad keen full on urbexer who drags me along in her wake!

Another fine report from the lone ranger team Shame to see her being ground down

That is a well covered report.

Likewise re the paintings but I would also hope that SOMEONE will retain/use that chapel roof structure.

Thanks for sharing.