However, I've got some new explorations in the pipeline, so to start things off, here's some updates...

The main hall at Severalls is no-more. It was burnt down a couple of weeks ago. Of course, it was arson. And everyone is gutted.

Severalls Hall: How it was.

Some archival shots of St. Johns have been added to the tour here and here (some scrolling may be necessary but it's the black and white shots - they're the giveaway!).

Updates to the ever popular Aquila: 1 and 2

And, very kindly, I've been sent some aerial shots of RAF Upwood. So, finally, I can give an impression of the size of the place.

It seems that The National Trust are finally sick and tired of the number of people tramping in and out of the CRX at all times of the day and the night. It's popularity has been the basis of its demise. Whilst arguments about the future of the site still rumble on, the Trust is going to start demolishing the CRX in the next few weeks.

So, I may raise a pint in The Feathers for the old girl, but, to be honest, the place is utterly, utterly trashed... and its time has come.

The most popular urban exploration forum in the UK is Darkplaces. However, it became far too popular for its own good, and site owner/admin Root decided to limit the site to underground exploration only - which was its original purpose and his own area of interest.

A new sister forum has been created for all fans of above-ground derelict structures. Derelict Places will become one of the places to discuss urban exploration in the UK, specificially of the sort of places featured on this site.

And, whilst I'm recommending forums, there's Dark Places for all your underground needs, and the excellent forum of Hidden Glasgow for everything north of the border.

That said, there's been some additions to St. John's: Information about the honeycombe ceilings and Some new pictures and the warning again.

I've added a few shots from the Asylum Of Mystery. In time, I'll post more from this shoot, but for now, I've put up some shots as a taster.

Added Harold Court to the Warley Project - this was a private house nearby which was used briefly as part of the asylum.

A beautiful example of something that can only be described as 'brownish' has been added to the wallpapers section.

From an early clutch of mouldy yellowing mush from The Laura Files, I've been able to update the Cane Hill yellow pages with more zany fun. (And, unfortunately, there's still more to come).

High Royds starts to get the project treatment, as the original plans and photographs of its construction are added to the site - it's 1888 all over again!

Updates to Severalls: Fernholme Villa.

It was finally published yesterday and urban exploration was featured across a whole page in The Independent. The unedited original can be found here, whilst some unpublished pictures of the day can be found here.

Lots and lots of pictures are almost ready to go up on the website. I've not published a tour in a month or so, but that doesn't mean I've not been exploring. Coming soon: St. Johns, Mystery and West Park.

After getting very confused about the asylums in Derby, I finally managed to sort the mess out and separate the two asylums originally listed into three: Woodlands (converted), Pastures (the original county asylum, not originally listed, and now converted) and Kingsway (the original borough asylum and still open).

Want to live in the grounds of Rauceby? Sorry - it's now called Devessey Meadows - how posh.

All hail the new owners. NHS Estates no longer look after (ahem) some of the prime urban exploration locations in the land. That (dubious) honour now goes to English Partnerships who have wasted no time announcing redevelopment plans for Leybourne Grange and Park Prewett. Despite such speed, it's going to take them a while to get thorugh the whole list.

I rather skimped on the about section of this site, adding a few rules which is central to the urban exploration ideal. I always wanted to say more, and I've finally found time to pen something. Plus some nice previously unpublished shots of Marchington Camp adorne the piece.

With that said, here's some more archival documentation from the old ruin: firstly some great elevations and plans and secondly the derivation of the ward names.

It looks like the majestic, magnificient (and as yet unexplored by my good-self) Denbigh is to be redeveloped. Check out the BBC for more information.

After a few months hiding in the house, I've been out and about and three explorations are ready for uploading. The first is a return to Severalls, for two reasons: firstly to get better photographs of those endless corridors and main hall, and secondly to get into the final areas I'd yet to get into, namely the water tower and chapel.

The latest and greatest can be found here.

Further to the bomb (or explosion damage) to Cane Hill, it seems that the damage was caused by people trying to get into the hospital's safes (which I pictured during my first Grand Tour). After eventually getting inside, and managing to collapse three storeys of the building in the process, they found very little of interest.

However, it's not all bad at Cane Hill. Harry Potter, Hermione and Snape have ventured into the ruinous rooms of Cane Hill to rescue elves. Read more here.

Whilst Stanley Royd is now either piles of bricks, or swanky apartments, some pictures of how it used to look in its asylum days have recently turned up.

Very doomy and very gloomy, St. George's in Stafford has been on my list of potentials for a while. So, whilst I'm working out when, where and how, Steven has already done the perimeter tour for me.

However, it's not all doom and gloom. A set of old pictures of the hospitals and grounds has been unearthed and shows the asylum in all its original glory. (Still no pictures of the interior of the Main Hall though).

Whilst Cane Hill is being destroyed on the sly, West Park has become the asylum of choice for many wanting to kill an afternoon exploring. Unfortunately it has been the subject of an arson attack, but (luckily) only a lodge was targetted and the main complex remained undisturbed.

And on the subject of the little morons with packets of matches, Severalls also suffered a 'mysterious fire' in November.

Many thanks to Steven Hull (who's unearthed some historial photos of Great Barr), I've been able to put together a brief Then And Now presentation.

And an article about the redevelopment of Warley has been unearthed. Plus some more information about the graveyard.

The mystery of the boats at Aqulia has been solved.

Most of High Royds is still standing but peripheral buildings are now being demolished. The main block, one of the first echelon asylums, has been used as a film set. Look out for the imaginatively titled Asylum starring Sir Iain McKellan which was shot there, and is due for general release soon.

And in a move which is very, very wrong, I've added some desktop wallpapers to the site - so your desktop can look just like a urban exploration experience.

And whilst it wasn't the most architectural of places to visit, Whitefields/Uplands made it up with high weirdness.

• Updates to Rauceby: Two of the pictures are now dated.
• Updates to Warley: More information about army camping in the asylum grounds

It's a bit of a mess: Great Barr Hall.

• Updates to Aquila: Block 5 info and Block 7 info (which was my mistake as I'd forgotten to include A's mail where he corrected himself).
• Updates to St. Margaret's: Doom and gloom: the fate of St. Margaret's
• Updates to Rauceby: Tunnel disappointment (Ground Floor #2) and Aerial Shot dating.

"One of the architectural - and social - tragedies of recent years has been the abandonment of the great Victorian lunatic asylums. Yes, they were sometimes badly and cruelly run. But they were well built and humanely designed, often in spacious, beautiful grounds. Now, surplus to requirements because of "care in the community", most of these fine buildings have been flogged off. Very few have been converted to housing, as they deserved; instead they have been cleared to make way for new housing estates from which somebody has made a tidy profit.

Whittingham Hospital near Preston, opened in 1873, offers a new twist on the saga. One of eight such massive institutions on huge sites once administered by the Lancashire Asylums Board, the NHS has wanted to get rid of it for years. Many of the ward blocks have gone, but the original buildings and the chapel, by Henry Littler of Manchester, survive.

The NHS Executive (North West) proposed building 950 houses together with commercial premises on the site. Opposed by Preston city council and local residents, this was turned down on appeal after public inquiry in 2002. But now Preston has approved a plan for 584 houses and a 20,000m² business park at Whittingham. So what's changed? Well, if permission were granted, the NHS said it was prepared to contribute to the cost of building the Broughton by-pass, for which planning permission was given in 2001, so making a useful link between the M55 and Whittingham. This comes under a "section 106 agreement" between the NHS, Lancashire county council and Preston city council. How much money is involved isn't clear, but the cost of the by-pass is £9m while £6.867m will come from "development comtributions, previous expenditure spent on land and design and land resale".

Those on hospital waiting lists will be delighted the NHS Executive is prepared to act as speculator and spend taxpayers' money on a "sweetener" to encourage a purely commercial development on land originally acquired for public benefit."

Private Eye
Oct/Nov 2003

Plus some recent pictures in Salter and The John Hutchinson Centre care of Steve and his mates.

And an update, thus proving that Buxton Chairs are not fun (and here I'm refering to the legendary Buxton Chair of the CRX and Buxton Chair Academy by Pwurg).

Will there be a definitive answer about these machines?. And there's some tales from the gatehouse.

Plus, the old place was in the news recently, as being one of the dirtiest hospitals in the UK. Hand on heart, it is a bit of a state in there. (Although seriously, I think it's the secure unit which needs a wipe down with the Flash liquid).

Additions to Paddock: an explaination of the codes on the distribution frame.

"Back in 1988 my mother was a domestic supervisor at Scalebour Park. She had worked there for many years. I was on sick leave at the time due to a bad accident and when I was ready to go back to work I asked if she could get me a job there (I wanted something less dangerous). So I got a job on the domestic team cleaning the main corridors and carpeted areas.

The hospital itself consisted of 14 wards with approx 300 patients, 12 on the main site and 2 (wards 9 & 10) were villas outside to the rear of the building. The layout of the building was in a "T" shape leading from the main Admin Block and Clock Tower (which is still there). Wards 1 to 8 were the original buildings, made of stone and in a two storey detail. Another corridor was later constructed off the main corridor which lead down to wards 10 to 14. Most of this building has now been demolished.

Wards 1 & 2 are still standing and can be seen from Moor Lane. I do believe that Wards 11 & 13 are still in use as an acute admission block. It had a cricket field and bowling green to the front of the building and I also remember they had a small aviary outside ward 3 which housed a number of different birds. I remember ward 2 which was a drug rehabilitation unit having 2 full sized snooker tables and at the far end of the ward there was also another games room opposite ward 11 which had snooker, darts, table-tennis, dominoes and cards.

The hospital had a small social club that was run by the hospital staff. There was also a building on the outskirts of the grounds which was a children's unit. It was called "Highlands". I think it was some sort of residence before it became a children's unit.

Across the road from the hospital was a place called "West Lodge" which in the grounds housed a teaching building for nursing staff and two prefab tower buildings which were male and female residences. But, alas, all these buildings have gone now, home to housing developers (no suprise there) as the hospital was run down. I decided it was time to leave"

Andy

The werid turrets around the grounds of Warley Asylum have finally been identified, along with some of the buildings.

Plus further updates from Ian: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.

And, finally, something new: part one of a trip to an extensive location near Birmingham, St. Margret's Hospital.