THE HISTORY:
The Orphanage was opened on September 19th, 1872 & was built at an estimated cost of £6000. A £10000 donation made by Mrs Maria Holland, a local resident at the time allowed the Orphanage to be built. The remaining £4000 was used to provide thirty places for local Roman Catholic girls. The Orphanage was designed in three sections - a place for the Orphan girls to live, a space to house the nuns of the orphanage & a place for visiting guests, the orphanage accepted girls from the age of 2-15 years old. The girls were given a school education but were also trained for various occupations including house work, teaching, shop work, servant work & machinery.
Although described as an Orphanage, it is actually a collection of listed buildings which grew around the original Orphanage.
The St Joseph’s Institute for the Sick & Poor in opened in 1877.
The R.C. Chapel designed by James Mangan which opened in 1910 and was built via the funds raised from the Orphanage and the Hospital.
Mount Street Hospital received its first operating theatre in 1910 and in World War 1 it housed wounded British and Belgian soldiers.
A new wing was added to the Hospital in 1933.
In World War 2 it was used to care for Dutch and Belgian sailors
Another new wing was opened in 1958 by Princess Marina the Duchess of Kent. The nuns who ran the orphanage were originally Dutch and called the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady Mother of Mercy.
In 1905, Moorfield Orphanage opened & the girls at St Joseph’s Orphanage were moved to the new facility, St Joseph’s then became St Joseph’s Hospital, caring for the sick who couldn’t afford medical treatment.
Legendary performer George Formby died at the hospital following a heart attack on March 6, 1961.
The hospital closed its doors in 1986, however all the three buildings were purchased by the present owner in 1988 who then converted the Orphanage building into a Nursing Home until February 2003 after new regulations deemed the building wasn’t fit for purpose. He also owns the 1930s extension on Mount Street, and the 1950s extension on Theatre Street - which was the geriatric wing for the hospital.
In April 2020, plans to convert the whole facility into apartment blocks was set to be approved which would consist of 10 townhouses with 67 rooms - five of the existing buildings would be demolished. To this date no work has started & the complex of buildings are slowly slipping deeper into disrepair.
THE EXPLORE:
After attending a car meet in Southport in May 2021. A friend I was with who had done quite a bit of urban exploring suggested it might be worth attempting to get some shots of an old, abandoned orphanage that he knew of. I had never been urban exploring before but as a keen photographer I love any opportunity to shoot interesting new subjects, so we decided to head over.
On arriving we spent some time looking around the exterior and met a couple of other urban explorers who were also looking to see what the inside had to offer, eventually luck was on our side as we managed to gain access quite easily just as the sun set. I say easily what I mean is it was easy after we scaled a 13ft wall .... Which might seem like nothing for some people but for a non climber like me I was quite impressed with myself
Inside we first came across what was some form of cellar area and what seemed like a U shape of corridors with rooms off each side. I can only presume these rooms with the dot and dabbed plastic walls were the leftovers of the conversion of the building into it’s last use as a residential care home. Other people with more knowledge than me might be able to correct that if I am wrong. My friend was quite happy with exploring the ground floor but me being me wanted to see and capture everything I was captivated by the decay and history within the walls. So here we spent the next 4 hours going room to room with my camera on the tripod doing 15 second exposures and lighting the room manually with a torch … to which my friend was not impressed with me waving a torch around …. But nobody wants to see under exposed images do they! We managed to see pretty much everything including the chapel and the operating rooms on the top floor with the strange wall-built machine in between the two rooms. Some form of sterilising machine if I remember right (I only took one image of this and just my luck when I got home, I had missed focus). We got to the top floor and down the corridor towards the loft area where I am told there is an old X-ray machine. However, the floors seemed a bit sketchy to say the least and we were resorting to making sure we were walking on beams at this point, so we decided to retreat down to ground level.
Upon exiting the mount street building we gained access to what seemed a newer building and I presume built as part of the care home conversion. This place was bad news and dank. The lift shaft had debris all at the bottom and water damage seemed to be doing its thing on the majority of the building. Just goes to show they don’t make em’ like they used too! After a brief look around in here, it was almost 1am so we decided to call it and head for home.
It was only the next day we realised that we hadn’t explored the cellar …. So up and over the 13ft wall we went again the next night. We got a few images of the cellar but we both came out with headaches. Not sure if there is some sort of gas stuck down there but between that and the damp it wasn’t good. The washing area was pretty much in perfect condition with the industrial sized washers, dryers and some other machine on the mount street exterior wall that looked like a huge mangle but I’m not sure what it was. After exiting the cellar, we spent a couple of hours looking for the mortuary slab that we had heard was in here. But after 2 hours and no luck on finding it, we presumed that it had either been broken so badly that it was rubble and unrecognisable or had been removed. We left disheartened!
Fast forward 2 months and after a fair bit of research and looking at images of the mortuary room and the windows that where in it ….. and a bit of time on google earth and other images I came to the conclusion, there was only 1 place this mortuary could be as the windows weren’t anywhere else on the ground floor. I was pretty sure could see the exact windows from the outside on google streetview… I just couldn’t understand why I hadn’t come across that room inside! So back I went this time with another friend who had been begging me to take him after hearing the stories of the first two adventures.
Up the 13ft wall again …. I never thought I’d do that once let alone 3 times. So, in we went and it had been there all that time, the door way to the mortuary room hiding away in a corner in the shadow. A place where you wouldn’t give a second glance. My friend who had begged and begged to visit the orphanage quickly got the heebie geebies (bottled it) as the sun began to set he really didn’t like being in there and wanted to leave. I got a few more shots of areas I’d not got on the first two visits and then reluctantly agreed to leave early . Strangely once outside, said friend perked up massively wanting pictures of himself in the courtyard with the tower in the background. Needless to say, he’s off the list of friends to go urban exploring with now haha!
After my visits I did research into the location and its history, and read other explorers reports of the place and realised how lucky I was to gain access on the first attempt of my first urban explore. I haven’t had time to do any exploring since these visits due to work commitments but will be looking to make more time over this winter.
Thanks for reading my first report, I hope I didn’t break any rules and met all the criteria. I hope you enjoy the images as much as I did capturing them.
THE PHOTOGRAPHY:
The Orphanage was opened on September 19th, 1872 & was built at an estimated cost of £6000. A £10000 donation made by Mrs Maria Holland, a local resident at the time allowed the Orphanage to be built. The remaining £4000 was used to provide thirty places for local Roman Catholic girls. The Orphanage was designed in three sections - a place for the Orphan girls to live, a space to house the nuns of the orphanage & a place for visiting guests, the orphanage accepted girls from the age of 2-15 years old. The girls were given a school education but were also trained for various occupations including house work, teaching, shop work, servant work & machinery.
Although described as an Orphanage, it is actually a collection of listed buildings which grew around the original Orphanage.
The St Joseph’s Institute for the Sick & Poor in opened in 1877.
The R.C. Chapel designed by James Mangan which opened in 1910 and was built via the funds raised from the Orphanage and the Hospital.
Mount Street Hospital received its first operating theatre in 1910 and in World War 1 it housed wounded British and Belgian soldiers.
A new wing was added to the Hospital in 1933.
In World War 2 it was used to care for Dutch and Belgian sailors
Another new wing was opened in 1958 by Princess Marina the Duchess of Kent. The nuns who ran the orphanage were originally Dutch and called the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady Mother of Mercy.
In 1905, Moorfield Orphanage opened & the girls at St Joseph’s Orphanage were moved to the new facility, St Joseph’s then became St Joseph’s Hospital, caring for the sick who couldn’t afford medical treatment.
Legendary performer George Formby died at the hospital following a heart attack on March 6, 1961.
The hospital closed its doors in 1986, however all the three buildings were purchased by the present owner in 1988 who then converted the Orphanage building into a Nursing Home until February 2003 after new regulations deemed the building wasn’t fit for purpose. He also owns the 1930s extension on Mount Street, and the 1950s extension on Theatre Street - which was the geriatric wing for the hospital.
In April 2020, plans to convert the whole facility into apartment blocks was set to be approved which would consist of 10 townhouses with 67 rooms - five of the existing buildings would be demolished. To this date no work has started & the complex of buildings are slowly slipping deeper into disrepair.
THE EXPLORE:
After attending a car meet in Southport in May 2021. A friend I was with who had done quite a bit of urban exploring suggested it might be worth attempting to get some shots of an old, abandoned orphanage that he knew of. I had never been urban exploring before but as a keen photographer I love any opportunity to shoot interesting new subjects, so we decided to head over.
On arriving we spent some time looking around the exterior and met a couple of other urban explorers who were also looking to see what the inside had to offer, eventually luck was on our side as we managed to gain access quite easily just as the sun set. I say easily what I mean is it was easy after we scaled a 13ft wall .... Which might seem like nothing for some people but for a non climber like me I was quite impressed with myself
Inside we first came across what was some form of cellar area and what seemed like a U shape of corridors with rooms off each side. I can only presume these rooms with the dot and dabbed plastic walls were the leftovers of the conversion of the building into it’s last use as a residential care home. Other people with more knowledge than me might be able to correct that if I am wrong. My friend was quite happy with exploring the ground floor but me being me wanted to see and capture everything I was captivated by the decay and history within the walls. So here we spent the next 4 hours going room to room with my camera on the tripod doing 15 second exposures and lighting the room manually with a torch … to which my friend was not impressed with me waving a torch around …. But nobody wants to see under exposed images do they! We managed to see pretty much everything including the chapel and the operating rooms on the top floor with the strange wall-built machine in between the two rooms. Some form of sterilising machine if I remember right (I only took one image of this and just my luck when I got home, I had missed focus). We got to the top floor and down the corridor towards the loft area where I am told there is an old X-ray machine. However, the floors seemed a bit sketchy to say the least and we were resorting to making sure we were walking on beams at this point, so we decided to retreat down to ground level.
Upon exiting the mount street building we gained access to what seemed a newer building and I presume built as part of the care home conversion. This place was bad news and dank. The lift shaft had debris all at the bottom and water damage seemed to be doing its thing on the majority of the building. Just goes to show they don’t make em’ like they used too! After a brief look around in here, it was almost 1am so we decided to call it and head for home.
It was only the next day we realised that we hadn’t explored the cellar …. So up and over the 13ft wall we went again the next night. We got a few images of the cellar but we both came out with headaches. Not sure if there is some sort of gas stuck down there but between that and the damp it wasn’t good. The washing area was pretty much in perfect condition with the industrial sized washers, dryers and some other machine on the mount street exterior wall that looked like a huge mangle but I’m not sure what it was. After exiting the cellar, we spent a couple of hours looking for the mortuary slab that we had heard was in here. But after 2 hours and no luck on finding it, we presumed that it had either been broken so badly that it was rubble and unrecognisable or had been removed. We left disheartened!
Fast forward 2 months and after a fair bit of research and looking at images of the mortuary room and the windows that where in it ….. and a bit of time on google earth and other images I came to the conclusion, there was only 1 place this mortuary could be as the windows weren’t anywhere else on the ground floor. I was pretty sure could see the exact windows from the outside on google streetview… I just couldn’t understand why I hadn’t come across that room inside! So back I went this time with another friend who had been begging me to take him after hearing the stories of the first two adventures.
Up the 13ft wall again …. I never thought I’d do that once let alone 3 times. So, in we went and it had been there all that time, the door way to the mortuary room hiding away in a corner in the shadow. A place where you wouldn’t give a second glance. My friend who had begged and begged to visit the orphanage quickly got the heebie geebies (bottled it) as the sun began to set he really didn’t like being in there and wanted to leave. I got a few more shots of areas I’d not got on the first two visits and then reluctantly agreed to leave early . Strangely once outside, said friend perked up massively wanting pictures of himself in the courtyard with the tower in the background. Needless to say, he’s off the list of friends to go urban exploring with now haha!
After my visits I did research into the location and its history, and read other explorers reports of the place and realised how lucky I was to gain access on the first attempt of my first urban explore. I haven’t had time to do any exploring since these visits due to work commitments but will be looking to make more time over this winter.
Thanks for reading my first report, I hope I didn’t break any rules and met all the criteria. I hope you enjoy the images as much as I did capturing them.
THE PHOTOGRAPHY:
