Whitchurch Hospital/Ysbyty'r Eglwys Newydd
Introduction
After a half hearted attempt in the early months of the year, getting within a now decaying Whitchurch was a task worth putting on the cards.
Having not been within since the touring cluster bomb of visitors since late 2019 it felt right to get back within the walls of Whitchurch once again, even if it was only three years on.
History
It has been covered far too many times for an in depth flick through Whitchurches' past to be worthwhile so I'll keep this short and sweet.
As the growth of Cardiff's population more or less doubled by the 1870s from the 1850's, with this growth only pushing drastically into the 20th century, so did the number of patients who required the housing of an asylum. As the numbers of Cardiff-based patients began to become more prominent in cross-boarder asylums the need for a local asylum was soon seen as a need to allow local patients to be treated locally.
Cardiff reluctantly put forward the funding to construct their own asylum shortly before the turn of the twentieth century with the construction completing in 1908 at a cost of over £350,000. This left a building capable of hosting 750 patients across ten wards with these segregated by gender, built to a compact arrow design featuring the administration front and centre.
Overall the layout is comparable to similar facilities such as a Cefn Coed.
Throughout most of the hospitals' operating life it was comparable to other Welsh facilities of the time. Being used as a temporary troop treatment facility during the global conflicts before a brief period of grace until being amalgamated into the NHS and then seeing gradual patient number declines during the enactment of care in the community with wards becoming vacant.
Plans for closure would be put forward in 2010 when considerations were made for all local mental health services to be centralised at Llandough before the asylums total closure then came in 2016. Since then very little has and can happen with the Grade 2 listed status of the building leaving options of demolition far from reach.
The Visit
Having been invited along with another group as an extra I climbed out from the back of the car as we set about finding a way in. We sighted a potential ingress through the fence so I was swiftly dispatched over to confirm the route and then proceeded to wait around inside for the others to sort themselves out with the ladder.
It was fairly instant to see how the place had changed. Many windows now fail to hold themselves together and water ingress has accelerated the decay. Although the now rather protected, in comparison to 2019, security has allowed the building some time to crumble in peace which really compliments the design of this place.
The Stores
Administration
Wards
Showers
The Corridors
Arguably, the best bits of Whitchurch.
Anyways, in summary, Whitchurch has settled beautifully with so much more potential.
That'll be all.
KP_
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