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View Full Version : Archived: Denbigh Asylum, Wales. Report April '09



sqwasher
08-06-2009, 12:52 AM
Visited here back in April with the usual company. Everyone knows the background of the place except the noobs out there, so here it is for them;

Denbigh Asylum was the first Welsh asylum to be built and originally came about because Welsh people were being mistreated in English asylums. It evolved due to a collaberation between 5-6 North Wales counties. The land, then worth about £2000, was donated by an anonymous landowner later anounced to be Joseph Ablett, who went on to be the inspiration for his wife to set up the Ablett Testimonial Fund (this fund helped patients after discharge).
The architect chosen to design the hospital was Thomas Full James and he had to make sure that his building provided the space to separate males from females, 1st class from second class and paupers and provide separate areas for violent and epileptic patients. It also had to house staff and many facilities within its walls and was designed to be able to extend, as needed, by building upwards. Construction started in 1844 and was completed in1848. The clock was donated by Mrs Ablett and was mounted on the clocktower in 1854 to 'complete' the building in honour of her and her husbands links with the hospital. Unfortunately the clock was stolen sometime after the main buildings closure.
The asylum had, over the years, facilities such as a brewery, bakery and a turkish baths. The chapel was built in 1862 to hold 200 people and was later extended to hold 440 in 1881. At its maximum capacity (1956) the asylum held 1,500 patients and 1,000 staff!
In 1987 a ten year closure plan announced that sections of the hospital were to close in stages between 1991 - 2002. The main hospital closed in 1995. To this day the main hospital remains derelict and is listed along with the Chapel, Lodge, Gate Piers and Bungalow.


Some externals to wet your appitite

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The mortuary & chapel areas

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The remains of the main hall.....so sad that we didn't get to see it before the fire!
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Moving inside & begining with a classic view
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The Most Haunted fake padded cell room :fail
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A final view as we left this glorious set of buildings
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Cheers for looking, my full flickr set can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sqwasher/sets/72157618852909439/ :thumb

freebird
08-06-2009, 12:52 AM
What a day! After sqwasher forgot to turn off his ‘laughing baby’ message alert and it went off when we were right in the front entrance to the building being extra quiet (thanks sqwasher!), the other explorers nearly getting caught and putting that man and Alsation on high alert and later a door slamming right behind me even though there was no draught, I felt relieved that I had managed to complete the explore without suffering a major heart attack! We definitely had an exciting explore that day! Here are my pics :-

Firstly some externals

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The Internals

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Where the Hall once stood! Not that good a pic but shows how sad the place looks.
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The 'Most Haunted' fake door and padded cell can be seen on the right.
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The best known corridor shots.
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The Boiler Room (built in 1902) with only the chimneys still intact.
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The Chapel
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The Mortuary
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The Nurses residence built in 1934.
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Thanks for looking. :)