After seeing lots on how good this site promised to be, I had to drag a mate along to come check it out!
History:
Formally known as Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre Headley Court or DMRC Headley Court. The site began in 1899 and was in use by the military between 1946 to 2018. Army veterans stayed in the site recovering from injuries abroad, through physiotherapy and the hospitality of the staff at the hospital. The site currently sits in a sorry disused state today but evidence of its past successful history is still present.
The explore:
Getting to Headley Court was a pain to say the least, due to it involving around an hour's cycle plus train ride each way, but it was a fun afternoon out nonetheless. We ended up going on a day of torrential rain, which resulted in the footpaths becoming boggy and impossible to cycle on, killing my bike and Jordans (why I wore them to the countryside beats me.) But after 2 hours of determination and donuts, we reached the site.
Entry to the main site wasn't an issue, although previous explorers claim it to be a challenge. As the grade II listed building and surrounding wards were spread across such a big space of land, the lone security hut couldn't cover every acre, which thankfully made sneaking in a breeze after our painful cycle there. As the main site is taken over by construction companies, our decision to go on a Sunday turned out to be a good one, as we seemed to have the site to ourselves.
The site itself is undergoing partial demolition, as seen in the pictures below. I was hoping to come across it in a more intact form, but beggars can't be choosers! Seeing the half-ripped apart buildings, we ran over to have a look at how diggers were in the process at clawing away the history of its medical past. Although most doors were locked, open windows were scattered across the site which made access even easier.
After half an hour of observing the main site, we wanted to see the U-shaped building across the street which looked promising...only to find it completely surrounded by barbed wire and swampland mud from the rainfall. We then realised a third section to the site existed, so we easily crossed a torn-down fence into what seemed to be a storage facility for the main building. To our disappointment once again, the area was covered by metal sheets with access looking decreasingly likely, however we did find old log books of the site's safety inspections for various boiler and gas chamber rooms. Not bad.
We then got bored of the failure of the second two buildings and headed back to the main facility to try and find a way in. Luckily the main door was wide open! BUT, there were such a variety of signs warning about asbestos which we'd never come across before, which resulted in us chickening out and heading back, with another 2 hours of rainy cycling to go.
Overall, I wouldn't really recommend a visit here due to its inconvenient location and construction work taking place, but it made for a fun (and muddy) day out, so who's got to lose?
WARNING: asbestos was everywhere during the explore, which stopped us from going in many of the rooms, including the Grade II-listed one!
The main Grade II building
A sneak peak inside
The site's current status of demolition
A few shots of the smaller surrounding wards
Didn't get any shots of the other two sections of the site, but there's nothing much to see
History:
Formally known as Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre Headley Court or DMRC Headley Court. The site began in 1899 and was in use by the military between 1946 to 2018. Army veterans stayed in the site recovering from injuries abroad, through physiotherapy and the hospitality of the staff at the hospital. The site currently sits in a sorry disused state today but evidence of its past successful history is still present.
The explore:
Getting to Headley Court was a pain to say the least, due to it involving around an hour's cycle plus train ride each way, but it was a fun afternoon out nonetheless. We ended up going on a day of torrential rain, which resulted in the footpaths becoming boggy and impossible to cycle on, killing my bike and Jordans (why I wore them to the countryside beats me.) But after 2 hours of determination and donuts, we reached the site.
Entry to the main site wasn't an issue, although previous explorers claim it to be a challenge. As the grade II listed building and surrounding wards were spread across such a big space of land, the lone security hut couldn't cover every acre, which thankfully made sneaking in a breeze after our painful cycle there. As the main site is taken over by construction companies, our decision to go on a Sunday turned out to be a good one, as we seemed to have the site to ourselves.
The site itself is undergoing partial demolition, as seen in the pictures below. I was hoping to come across it in a more intact form, but beggars can't be choosers! Seeing the half-ripped apart buildings, we ran over to have a look at how diggers were in the process at clawing away the history of its medical past. Although most doors were locked, open windows were scattered across the site which made access even easier.
After half an hour of observing the main site, we wanted to see the U-shaped building across the street which looked promising...only to find it completely surrounded by barbed wire and swampland mud from the rainfall. We then realised a third section to the site existed, so we easily crossed a torn-down fence into what seemed to be a storage facility for the main building. To our disappointment once again, the area was covered by metal sheets with access looking decreasingly likely, however we did find old log books of the site's safety inspections for various boiler and gas chamber rooms. Not bad.
We then got bored of the failure of the second two buildings and headed back to the main facility to try and find a way in. Luckily the main door was wide open! BUT, there were such a variety of signs warning about asbestos which we'd never come across before, which resulted in us chickening out and heading back, with another 2 hours of rainy cycling to go.
Overall, I wouldn't really recommend a visit here due to its inconvenient location and construction work taking place, but it made for a fun (and muddy) day out, so who's got to lose?
WARNING: asbestos was everywhere during the explore, which stopped us from going in many of the rooms, including the Grade II-listed one!
The main Grade II building
A sneak peak inside
The site's current status of demolition
A few shots of the smaller surrounding wards
Didn't get any shots of the other two sections of the site, but there's nothing much to see
