West Park, Epsom - The Best of Both Trips - November/December

After a failed attempt at Cane Hill mad which, incidentally, involved being chased by a digger at walking speed, me, my mate paskey, wifebeater, concentration F, randomnut, LiamCH and his girlfriend Cosmic moon, decided that all was not lost and I suggested that we should have a go at West Park.

Wow! It's MASSIVE! The site opened in 1923 and closed in several parts during the 1990’s. We didn't see a quarter of it and we still spent hours in there.

Whats Cane Hill got that West Park hasn't? They both have beds (West Park more in fact), stuff left, beautiful decay and a huge wealth of left behind items. And West Park has the padded cell and the nursery!
The administration building is beautiful, and in fact almost all of the site is. The corridors rival Severalls', the main hall is epic, and it's an outrage the asylum is left as it is.

Anyway, on with the pictures...

Admin...




The grounds of the asylum were gorgeous, with mature oak trees and pavillions for every ward...






The service tunnels ran across the entire site, and to me seemed incredibly over engineered...



The service tunnels used vast sluice gates to block off water flow and stop the hospital flooding. Huge volumes of water must have built up down there.
This was one of the sluice gates, taller than a man...



The sevice tunnels were our route around the hospital, which gave us a fascinating trip between wards. When we emerged from the tunnels, our first sight was the main hall. After a large arson attack (always the main hall), the room has been left as a shell with only the iron frame for the arched ceiling remaining. Despite this, the main hall was still very grand and very epic.






The canteen also appeared to have been damaged by the attack, but it was obvious that this was once a very grand room.





Through a small service hatch were the kitchens; a vast room that served the hospitals 2000 patients. When standing in here, I could imagine the heat and the noise that must have filled this room when it was in operation.

This industrial sized oven, still gleaming from the last days of the hospital, stands sad and alone.



The kitchens still had a lot of machinery left in them, such as a colossal grill.



The freezers still reeked of meat and reconditioned air.



The corridors ran across the site and must rival Severalls' corridors. They were the main artery of the asylum if you like.






Unfortunately, we could only peer into this ward. A wealth of hospital junk remained; beds, zimmer frames and stretchers.

Each ward was fantastic, containing complete cells, day rooms and a pharmacy, kitchens and endless beds.






These baths were shared by all of the patients, and the water must have become disgusting by the end of the day.




Yet more beds...



This disgusting green water ironically made very beautiful effects, and I believe it is an icon of West Park.

Upstairs in this ward, the water seeping through the roof made the wallpaper flake and curl, crunching alarming loudly as you walked over it.



The small kitchen...



Yuk!



The day rooms, where the patients spent their afternoons, had grand bay windows designed to let as much light in as possible.



Spongey floors!




West Park was a crazy place; the patients medicines were kept next to the jam.





On the corridor to admin, the patients bank and shop had unbroken glass doors; a rare sight in an asylum as dilapidated as West Park.




Admin was as grand inside as it was outside, with gorgeous columns and a central staircase.




This was exactly how we found this room...



Group shot in the hall...

Here’s my pictures from the second visit...

But first some sad news about the padded cell. The internal door that had the viewing pane in it has been ripped from the doorway, and there is no sign of the door anywhere. There are now even less intact padded cells in this country, and none as the fine as West Parks was. But oh well, at least I got to see it, and it was still impressive!

Anyway, still a great day out with Concentration F, wifebeater, liamCH and randomnut.

The asylum was set in acres of beautiful parkland, and we saw several deer running through the trees.




We found the projector room, and the rumours were true; it had been stripped. As we had seen the main hall in the previous visit, we only stopped briefly.




The dentist...



Me as a lunatic... (Bed was suprisingly comfortable!)



In a small, ordinary looking cell there was an enormous map of the Surrey area. It had detailed outlines of all the great asylums and hospitals in the area, including all of the Epsom Cluster, Cane Hill and Netherne.




Bath time can't hhave been particuarly private, or clean for that matter...




Although the hospital has suffered minimal vandalism, water infiltration and time has not been kind to this place...



Scattered throughout the hospital were shops, boutiques and canteens for both patients and staff; it really was a small town in its own right. This till still had 1/2p and 6d buttons...



LiamCH discovered a ward with a treasure trove of junk in it. However, this was on the 1st floor of the ward, which meant it had a concrete floor. To get to it, you had to cross the ground floor, which was held up almost entirely by flimsy laminate; the wooden beams had turned to powder.

Liam CH discovered this the hard way; he stood on a piece of floor that looked just as sturdy (or dangerous) as the rest, and CRASH! He managed to end up flailing for a couple of seconds before completely disappearing, head first, into the enormous hole that had opened up from nowhere. His hair contained pieces of floor for the rest of the day.



We never made it to the upstairs, but the downstairs offered us some laughs, and it has to be said the sunlight streaming in was very soothing.




One of the wards had a very similar and equally terrifying downstairs, but when you managed to get upstairs it was entirely worth it.

For one, it contained the famous room stuffed full of patients clothes, diaries, games, books and a groovy little 1960's thermos flask.





The unfortunate patients had their diaries locked away...




Each ward had a pharamacy, and in each pharmacy was a disturbing feature. The drugs cabinets were alarmed, stopping any out-of-their-minds patients killing themselves by overdosing.



In this same corridor was the part of the hospital that makes the entire trip worth it; the padded cell. Even without the inner door it was still an impressive sight, but it was distinctly uncomfortable to imagine what must have gone in this room. Especially as we discovered a straitjacket nearby.



Me posing as one of the unfortunate individuals deemed fit to be incarcerated in the padded cell. In my opinion, no one should have been put in here; it can't have helped their mental state.



A typical patients view...



Well, I'm almost glad we failed Cane Hill as some Cane Hill veterans think West Park is better!

Wow! Excellent stuff.

The images really do make you think about these places. The patients etc...

Which vacuum would I put my money on in the 100 feet sprint? Mmmm.

Thanks for posting.

Wow !! that place is a labyrinth,each shot is worthy of a comment and i thought some of the posing shots were both sad & funny at the same time,pat on the back for you guys :wcool:

clebby said:

Whats Cane Hill got that West Park hasn't? They both have beds (West Park more in fact), stuff left, beautiful decay and a huge wealth of left behind items. And West Park has the padded cell and the nursery!
The administration building is beautiful, and in fact almost all of the site is.

Click to expand...

From talking to many fellow explorers who have been to Cane Hill and West Park - there's often a clear divide of people who prefer West Park over Cane Hill, and vice versa.

I prefer (or did) Cane Hill, and I think it's mainly due to the fact its a much older building than West Park - and was a lot more imposing, especially with large three storey wards. West Park is good, but a lot more plain.


Good writeup here, and nice selection of pictures.

If you see pictures of medication in people's photos from hospitals be sure to look them up on wikipedia. They have very detailed descriptions of so much medication. The image above of 'Madopar' doesn't show up in a search, but the results for Levodopa shows that it's a treatment for Parkinsons. It makes for interesting reading.

Looks like you had a good visit, especially LiamCH who appears to have dressed for some sort of farm show

Wonderful stuff

Some classy stuff here for sure....I find it hard to imagine somebody lugging the padded cell door away...it must weigh a ton.Just love the attacking hoovers too.
Stu

foz101 said:

If you see pictures of medication in people's photos from hospitals be sure to look them up on wikipedia. They have very detailed descriptions of so much medication. The image above of 'Madopar' doesn't show up in a search, but the results for Levodopa shows that it's a treatment for Parkinsons. It makes for interesting reading.

Looks like you had a good visit, especially LiamCH who appears to have dressed for some sort of farm show

Click to expand...

theres loads of medication in west park; i was suprised
madopar CR, or even just madopar brings up loads of results on google, you must have just spelt it wrong

I meant a wikipedia search, sorry. Although medopar is mentioned in the Benserazide section.

clebby said:

Here’s my pictures from the second visit...



Liam CH discovered this the hard way; he stood on a piece of floor that looked just as sturdy (or dangerous) as the rest, and CRASH! He managed to end up flailing for a couple of seconds before completely disappearing, head first, into the enormous hole that had opened up from nowhere. His hair contained pieces of floor for the rest of the day.

!

Click to expand...

You are lucky Liam, glad you are ok.

Just to clarify....

clebby said:

West Park was a crazy place; the patients medicines were kept next to the jam.

Click to expand...

Levodopa, as said before is a medication for parkinsonism and is altered within the body to form dopamine, a hormone deficient is parkinsons sufferers. Benserazide is added to preparations as a means of modifying uptake allowing a longer duration of action and significantly reducing symptoms associated with Levodopa alone. 'Madopar' is a tradename, generically the drug is co-beneldopa. The other drug visible is Chloral hydrate (chlorohydrate) a hypnotic principally used for insomnia.

clebby said:

These baths were shared by all of the patients, and the water must have become disgusting by the end of the day.

Click to expand...

To be fair, these baths would or should not have been communal baths. Unlike the big old tubs from the bath houses which once would have existed these would have been single use (at a time) and the water *should* have been changed between each patient. Most mental hospitals had strict regulations enforcing this and were frequently displayed on the bathroom walls.

clebby said:

Me posing as one of the unfortunate individuals deemed fit to be incarcerated in the padded cell. In my opinion, no one should have been put in here; it can't have helped their mental state.

Click to expand...

To be fair, the purpose of padded cells was not to incarcerate, but to restrain. Although it is fair to say a certain amount of 'punishment' went on, the padded cell, or seclusion room, was not designed or incorporated into hospitals for this purpose whatsoever. A seclusion room's principal role was for the containment of individuals during particularly violent episodes, too dangerous to contain within other ward areas. They offered a means of protecting other patients, staff and the patient themselves (hence the padding), until they cooled off. The advent of of certain antipsychotic and sedative medicatons has made their role in mental hospitals obsolete since the 1960's hence their relative scarcity now. They survived much longer in mental handicap hospitals with patients were frequently prone to fitting or thrashing where medication had been less effective in controlling episodes.

Pete

Pete said:

Just to clarify....


Levodopa, as said before is a medication for parkinsonism and is altered within the body to form dopamine, a hormone deficient is parkinsons sufferers. Benserazide is added to preparations as a means of modifying uptake allowing a longer duration of action and significantly reducing symptoms associated with Levodopa alone. 'Madopar' is a tradename, generically the drug is co-beneldopa. The other drug visible is Chloral hydrate (chlorohydrate) a hypnotic principally used for insomnia.


To be fair, these baths would or should not have been communal baths. Unlike the big old tubs from the bath houses which once would have existed these would have been single use (at a time) and the water *should* have been changed between each patient. Most mental hospitals had strict regulations enforcing this and were frequently displayed on the bathroom walls.



To be fair, the purpose of padded cells was not to incarcerate, but to restrain. Although it is fair to say a certain amount of 'punishment' went on, the padded cell, or seclusion room, was not designed or incorporated into hospitals for this purpose whatsoever. A seclusion room's principal role was for the containment of individuals during particularly violent episodes, too dangerous to contain within other ward areas. They offered a means of protecting other patients, staff and the patient themselves (hence the padding), until they cooled off. The advent of of certain antipsychotic and sedative medicatons has made their role in mental hospitals obsolete since the 1960's hence their relative scarcity now. They survived much longer in mental handicap hospitals with patients were frequently prone to fitting or thrashing where medication had been less effective in controlling episodes.

Pete

Click to expand...

Some of the baths, particuarly the hydrotherapy one, were dsigned to "reheat after each use". Besides, they wouldn't have been as clean as domestic baths anyway.

I know the padded cell wasn't there as a punishment; punishment was strictly against hospital policy, and examples such as the "Whittingham Scandal" were rare. Incarcerate does not necessarily mean imprison, however, some people may have spent a bit longer than they were supposed to in the padded cell.