Hi all, haven't done an explore for a few months and I'm finally getting round to uploading pictures from earlier this year.
This report is from what's left of St. Augustines around August time. A friend of mine had known about the place for ages but we'd never looked into it or thought about going despite being pretty local. It turned out to be a good day, better than expected.
There's nothing massively interesting inside the buildings if I'm totally honest, but the site is quite large and took a fair amount of time to explore the whole place inside and out. Exploring the rooftop on one of the buildings was a nice touch also.
Some history:
Saint Augustine’s Hospital, opened in 1875 as the Kent County Lunatic Asylum (Until 1920, when it became the Kent County Mental Hospital), was a psychiatric hospital in Chartham, Kent.
Designed by the London firm of architects J. Giles and Gough, construction of the original 120-acre site was finished in 1876 and cost £211,852. It was built to house 870 patients, but was gradually expanded.
At it’s peak, the hospital was it’s own, self-contained village. It had its own fire brigade, gas works, grave yard, church, butcher, baker, workshops and farm, even its own cricket team and band. The farm was worked by male patients, while female patients worked the laundry and were seamstresses.
In 1948 it became part of the new National Health Service. It spanned 300 acres, changed name to St Augustine’s Hospital, included a farm, residencies for 73 staff, with new blocks and facilities for patients. It would eventually house more than 2,000 patients.
And my pictures:
Hope you enjoyed the photos Full sizes are on my Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/99836120@N03/
This report is from what's left of St. Augustines around August time. A friend of mine had known about the place for ages but we'd never looked into it or thought about going despite being pretty local. It turned out to be a good day, better than expected.
There's nothing massively interesting inside the buildings if I'm totally honest, but the site is quite large and took a fair amount of time to explore the whole place inside and out. Exploring the rooftop on one of the buildings was a nice touch also.
Some history:
Saint Augustine’s Hospital, opened in 1875 as the Kent County Lunatic Asylum (Until 1920, when it became the Kent County Mental Hospital), was a psychiatric hospital in Chartham, Kent.
Designed by the London firm of architects J. Giles and Gough, construction of the original 120-acre site was finished in 1876 and cost £211,852. It was built to house 870 patients, but was gradually expanded.
At it’s peak, the hospital was it’s own, self-contained village. It had its own fire brigade, gas works, grave yard, church, butcher, baker, workshops and farm, even its own cricket team and band. The farm was worked by male patients, while female patients worked the laundry and were seamstresses.
In 1948 it became part of the new National Health Service. It spanned 300 acres, changed name to St Augustine’s Hospital, included a farm, residencies for 73 staff, with new blocks and facilities for patients. It would eventually house more than 2,000 patients.
And my pictures:
Hope you enjoyed the photos
Full sizes are on my Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/99836120@N03/
