Report - Whittingham Asylum, Goosnargh - 2011

[dannyburn]

The History of Whittingham Lunatic Asylum

Whittingham Hospital was ( at the time, Europes second largest Lunatic Asylum) a psychiatric hospital in the parish of Whittingham near Preston, Lancashire England. The hospital opened in 1873 as the Fourth Lancashire County Asylum and grew to be the largest mental hospital in Britain, and pioneered the use of EEG'S. It closed in 1995. Lots of info on the internet......books worth of information!

My Visit - RETROSPECTIVE TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE (FRESH FOOTAGE AND CONTENT)

This visit was 10 years ago this month, however, I have never posted the images or footage before, so although a retrospective, its fresh content and well worth a look if you were a fan of the colossal Whittigham asylum!

Sept 2011, at 5am, saw myself, sorel and scruffy diamond embark on our first ever urban explore, and what a place to start! Whittingham has been one of may favourite explores to date, and maybe we were spoilt on our first venture.

Security was hot, and they were on our tails from the very start. We were never located during our 8 hour explore, which made the whole experience that much more fun.

From the get go, we were amazed by the state of the place. Some parts immaculate, other parts fallen into ruin.

Traces of its former glory still present, and gems after gems were found and documented.

The highlight for me was when we found the main hall, which greeted us with a silent eerie experience. The projection booth and stage all in very good condition, with only a burn hole in the magnificent wooden danced floor. The water tower was sealed and access from the main building was flooded with swimming rat infested water, so we gave it a miss.

A true gem, that we are glad we got to explore before it got demolished.

I hope you get some value from this.

THANKS FOR LOOKING AND I HOPE YOU ENJOY THE TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

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[Fuzzball]

Whittingham seemed to have the largest hall of them all, look at the width of that beast! Very intetesting retrospective.

 

[mookster]

Whittingham seemed to have the largest hall of them all, look at the width of that beast! Very intetesting retrospective.

It was the largest capacity asylum in the country so made sense to have the biggest hall. That being said the actual stage itself is pretty small in comparison.

 

[Fuzzball]

It was the largest capacity asylum in the country so made sense to have the biggest hall. That being said the actual stage itself is pretty small in comparison.

I am not really au fait with Whittingham, and haven't checked it out on County Asylums etc so wasn't sure of its capacity, but it makes complete sense. The stage does seem to be roughly the same size as the others' stages, and not scaled up with the hall as you may expect, although perhaps there was a cap on how many performers could be on stage at any one time, or a fire regulation, given with how fires could often spread on stages and flytowers. There also seems to be some general standardisation to most asylum halls too - barrel ceilings, shape of the stage surrounds.

 

[Calamity Jane]

Gotta love an asylum. Great photos, decay everywhere, but its still makes for beautiful photos. Like the B&W shots, very atmospheric. I suppose I like them as I worked in them for so long. Would love to visit here, sadly cant dodge security anymore. So I will enjoy yours & others shots.