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| Barden Seclusion Rooms |
To See our other much larger website devoted to High Royds click (Here)
The Water Damage Video
High Royds Video.
You are invited to uncover the real history
of the Lunatic Asylum. With haunting images old and new, and compelling stories from ex patients
and staff, we will dispel the myth of institutional life.
High Royds Pauper Lunatic Asylum
Opened for business on the 8th October 1888, the West
Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum as it was then
known, became High Royds in 1963. One of the last remaining psychiatric hospitals of it's kind to be still functioning when
it closed in 2003.
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| The Gate Corridor |
A truly magnificent example of Vickers, Edwards architecture, it
is arguably the finest example of the broad arrow layout. At one time the site included a library, surgery, dispensary, ballroom,
butchers, dairies, bakers and even it's own railway. By the 1930s a sweetshop, cobblers, upholsterer and tailor were added
making it in effect a self contained village.
Destined for housing redevelopment which is already partly underway this magnificent edifice has
been allowed to deteriorate in a shameful manner. Lead has been stripped from the roofs, water damage to the ornate carvings,
tiles and mosaic floors of the admin building are beginning to look beyond repair.
This beautiful, haunting location is the holy grail of explores
for me and the place I am most compelled to reveal. The atmosphere is thick with residual energy of the past inhabitants.
Reverred by many, the location has been used for media productions
such as the film 'Asylum', and TV series, Bodies and No Angels, amongst others. David Dimbleby deemed the structure of such
merit to feature in his BBC documentary series How We Built Britain.
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| The Memorial garden, where 2858 patients are buried in unmarked graves. |
I hope that my images reveal the faded grandeur, and reflects the
elegance still perceptible amongst the decay but also that they inform those who care of the present predicament this grand
old lady finds herself in.
Exploring the unseen.
Capturing the forbidden and rescuing the ravaged
beauty of the past from the jaws of dereliction is my passion. History is a game decay always wins, but before the bulldozers
raze or the developers rape, I hope that my endeavours will preserve some small victory and convey to you an atmosphere before
it is lost forever.
Once you climb the stairs to the clock tower eventually you arrive at a small roof light which opens
up on to the roof. The views are outstanding, Especially at Sunset.
In The Film Asylum, Stella Walks off the roof commiting suicide.
Top of the page.
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