St Johns Mental Hospital, Bracebridge Heath - May 2012

[ravenwing93]

The Asylum was built in 1852 and enlarged on several subsequent occasions.

It was originally established jointly by Lindsey, Kesteven, Holland, Lincoln, Grimsby and Stamford, and managed by a Board of Visitors appointed by the contributing authorities. Kesteven and Grantham withdrew from the arrangement when the contract of Union expired in 1893 (eventually establishing the Kesteven County Asylum at South Rauceby, 1897).

The hospital was set in grounds of 120 acres which included gardens, farmland and a burial ground. In 1940 female patients were transferred to other hospitals, mainly Storthes Hall near Huddersfield, to make space for an Emergency Hospital, and many did not return until well after the end of the War.

Administration of the hospital passed to the National Health Service in 1948, and by the early 1960s it was known by its final name of St John's Hospital.

St John's Hospital itself was closed in December 1989 with the remaining patients transferred to other establishments. The site was sold for housing and most of the buildings apart from the central block were demolished.

There's quite a lot of photos, I know the Report Guide says 10-15, so if you need it chopping down then I can do.

We had a good day here and ended up spending quite a while wandering around. Originally we had the intention of doing a few other sites on the same day but this soon went out of the window when we realised how big this place was. Sadly we didn't manage to get around the entire place although I think we may have come across some parts that I've not seen previously in other reports: Teddy Bears Day Nursery and some sort of archive room complete with a load of deeds to places all over the county.

Externally this place looks fantastic and on the most part the internals seem pretty solid. The main problem areas being the second floor areas and the branch into the west wing from the entrance hall where there seems to of been quite a large fire at some point. Nevertheless quite a lot of interesting features remain including the awesome corridor ceilings and in some areas the wall paper.

Hopefully at some point the developers will finish off their job and complete the conversion to apartments before it's too late.

Asylum

Nursery

Thanks for looking

 

[UE-OMJ]

Bugger me I didnt know St Johns was that well intact... cheers for the update.

 

[abel101]

wow!
this place looks awesome some cracking shots aswel!

 

[kevsy21]

Well captured,good work.

 

[Goldie87]

Interesting to see some different bits, think the nursery was still used last time I was there.

 

[prettyvacant71]

Sum great shots there mate! Good use of dof which i often forget about, get abit lazy just f/16 all the time so good to see a nice bit of blur! ...thanks for reminding me not to be so lazy!

 

[rectory-rat]

Nice! Likewise I had no idea there were intact and furnished parts - I thought it was all pretty much stripped. Must get myself round this place soon as I'm not that far away...

The pic below may interest some of you. Sure it's been seen around before, but offers an illustration of the hospital in its olden days. Scanned from a very old book page I picked up framed at a local auction house...(sorry its not cropped - my first time on Flickr and I can't work it out yet )


Lincoln Hospital Doc 1 by rectory-rat, on Flickr

-RR

 

[the kwan]

Looks fresh as a daisy, thanks for posting it..nice pics!

 

[flyboys90]

Superb photos,thanks for sharing.

 

[TeeJF]

Listen, what's that I hear? Echooo echooooo echooooo....

I'm just going to add to it... I never knew it was so intact!!! I'm staggered. I'd heard all sorts of stories about it being a difficult explore for access with quite on the ball security, and that the state of the place made it barely worth the effort. But it's actually in lovely nick, far better than Whittingham's grotty floors.

Nice report mate and some cracking pix. Well done.

 

[Silent Hill]

Nice one mate. I just love St Johns. It's one of the best in my eyes. Shame to see the nursery has shut. Did you manage the cellars?? The ceilings in there are honeycombed too

 

[ravenwing93]

Cheers for the comments guys

Not done the cellars, I'd heard that there's a massive amount of asbestos in the cellar. But we are going back that way soon so will have a look.

Awesome find RR, I presume that part is long gone?

 

[onthebusescrazy]

Brillant Find Brillant Pictures thank u

 

[MD]

good stuff
St Johns has great wallpaper !!

 

[Sshhhh...]

Great pics! i really must see this place

 

[rectory-rat]

Awesome find RR, I presume that part is long gone?

I assume so from the photos of it I have seen. But I'm hoping to do the place pretty soon so I'll try and match it to some existing buildings if I can...

 

[Scaramanger]

ooooh... those stairs.....

 

[UEP-Wales]

WOW! This looks pretty amazing and your photo's are spot on!

Thanks for posting these

 

[UrbanX]

I can't believe it's so in tact!
Awesome photographs! Really show off the spaces like the main hall and the stairs.
Interesting to see the floor removed and the service void visible too.
Thanks for sharing, although I can only assume were going to be queuing to get in here now!

 

[stevejd]

Nice! Likewise I had no idea there were intact and furnished parts - I thought it was all pretty much stripped. Must get myself round this place soon as I'm not that far away...

The pic below may interest some of you. Sure it's been seen around before, but offers an illustration of the hospital in its olden days. Scanned from a very old book page I picked up framed at a local auction house...(sorry its not cropped - my first time on Flickr and I can't work it out yet )


Lincoln Hospital Doc 1 by rectory-rat, on Flickr

-RR

Sorry to correct you but it's not St John's. This picture is of The Lawn, another psychiatric hospital that predates St John's and reputedly provided care for mad King Goerge