{"id":1285,"date":"2024-05-31T17:58:16","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T17:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gcat.org.uk\/urbex\/?p=1285"},"modified":"2024-05-31T17:58:18","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T17:58:18","slug":"abandoned-victorian-infirmary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gcat.org.uk\/urbex\/?p=1285","title":{"rendered":"Abandoned Victorian Infirmary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Well. I didn’t mean to have an 18 month hiatus in my exploring. It just sort of happened. (Actually I did explore a really cool place in 2023, but it wasn’t technically abandoned and I know I shouldn’t have been in there, so I’ve been hesitant to post publicly about it).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This one was worth waiting for, though. It’s an abandoned hospital that I’ve known about for a long time, but only now been able to get inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This was a classic Victorian infirmary building, constructed of red sandstone at the very end of the 19th century. It was used as the main hospital for the large town in which it stands until the 1980s, when a new building a few streets away replaced it. Afterwards, part of the main building was converted into flats, while the remainder was used as a care home. The care home closed in 2008, and so the majority of the building has been derelict since then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Inside, the disused part of the building is mostly empty, and suffering badly from vandalism and decay. Ceilings have fallen down in places, and there were holes in the floor as well. The dark corridors and silent rooms are a mess of peeling paint and graffiti.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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However, there were also some fine features that were worth seeing. The staircases, some with ornate balustrades and archways, were particularly impressive. I also liked the arched windows that were a common motif on this building. The long corridors were atmospheric and made for some evocative photos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I visited early in the morning, hoping to get the place to myself – and I did, mostly. Soon after I arrived I heard noises coming from the entrance and turned around to see a small fox silhouetted in my torch beam, its eyes glinting back at me for a few seconds before it decided to run away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(I’ve got to say, I’m amazed by the low light performance of modern phone cameras, at least the Google Pixel ones I’ve used. Shots that would previously have needed a long exposure using a tripod are now possible hand held. I don’t see myself getting rid of my SLR quite yet, but I am finding it comes out of the bag less and less these days).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Well. I didn’t mean to have an 18 month hiatus in my exploring. It just sort of happened. (Actually I did explore a really cool place in 2023, but it wasn’t technically abandoned and I know I shouldn’t have been in there, so I’ve been hesitant to post publicly about it). This one was worth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hospitals-and-asylums"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcat.org.uk\/urbex\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcat.org.uk\/urbex\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcat.org.uk\/urbex\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcat.org.uk\/urbex\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcat.org.uk\/urbex\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1285"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcat.org.uk\/urbex\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1296,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcat.org.uk\/urbex\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285\/revisions\/1296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcat.org.uk\/urbex\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcat.org.uk\/urbex\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcat.org.uk\/urbex\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}