Hellingly Asylum (Hellingly Hospital)
Sitting on top of a hill overlooking the East Sussex Countryside sits the battered remains of Hellingly hospital, Formerly Hellingly Asylum. Hellingly is a prime example of the "splendid isolation" design philosophy that is present in the design of many institutional buildings of this era.
Hellingly was designed by architect GT Hine and built to a late Victorian design during a period of massive expansion for mental health facilities in Britain. Hellingly First opened its doors to patients in 1903 and continued to serve the local community for almost the next 90 years. As with so many other asylums a change in policy on the treatment of many patients meant closure of the majority of buildings in 1994.
The Hospital today has suffered over 10 years of neglect badly, arson has destroyed several buildings most notably the administration block. Vandals have been systematically removing all the windows, the easier to access ground floor areas have received the brunt of these attacks.
Hellingly Hospital was a very large mental hospital in the village of Hellingly, East Sussex, England. It was opened in 1903 and the architecture of the hospital was done by great asylum architects of the era.
In this post, we will bring some stunning photos from Hellingly Asylum Mental Hospital. I really don’t know the history of Hellingly Asylum Hospital but I liked the photos of this building found on DeviantArt and thought to share it with you guys.
I would love to know more about this. If anyone of you have some interesting stuff to share about Hellingly Asylum, please share it here in the comments.
Main hall
The next stop was the main hall. This was impressive, except for a few failed fire attempts on the floor.Someone had also drawn a huge pentagram on the floor of the hall with salt. The salt drew moisture out of the atmosphere and stained the wood.
Corridors
Guess what – there’s corridors in this place too! A few of them have collapsed though due to fires and wet.
Wards & Rooms
Also, there are wards (and other rooms). One thing that reall struck me is how much stuff is left here. There are curtains, chairs, coat hooks, bottles and all sorts of other things
Admin Block
The admin block had been damaged by fire a few years ago and has been sealed up. There is a tiny way in though. The stairs had burnt down meaning you couldn’t get upstairs. Downstairs was nice though, with ornate tiles in the corridors, toilet roll in the toilets (!), and a dentist chair in the corridor.
Kitchen, Laundry & Stores
One or two photos from the kitchen, laundry and stores. I did climb into one of the huge washing machines – that was quite a task as the drum kept moving!!
Other bits
A few other sights I saw, including a room full of dentist’s chairs…
