Account written by: Groobs
I have to admit I can’t help
being a little envious of explorers in the states who seem to have so many
amazing asylums to explore, such as Danvers and Byberry, and with the
relatively recent loss of many of our asylums in the UK, to developers,
arsonists and the wrecking ball, the subject becomes even more dissatisfying
for UK explorers. Of course there are many of these institutions in the
Setting off
from home early-(ish) that morning enabled us to complete the 2 ½ hour drive to
Basingstoke and be on site before midday, giving us 4-5 hours of solid
exploration. We found the site without any fannying about and took five minutes
to drive around the perimeter and get a feel for the best way in. Because of
our lack of pre-trip information – having no more than a dateless multimap
aerial photo to go on, we’d been as worried as hell that this would be a wasted
trip. To see the large central tower, looming over the redbrick asylum was a
welcome sight, with each of us being pretty vocal about how impressed we were.
Even then, before we got in, we knew the drive had been worth it.
After
discovering that much of the asylum was in plain view of the public on it’s
south side, and being in plain view of active care centres on it’s north side,
there didn’t seem to be too many options and parking up at a nearby office
complex to have a walk around the fence was all we could do. We could already
see that our exploration would be made more difficult by security measures that
were in place. Together with the barbed and well maintained fence, all the
buildings were boarded up tight as hell. Arse. However, it wasn’t long before
we discovered a break in the fence, and quickly darted in to see if any of the
buildings could be accessed.
Window after window, door
after door. Boards, screws, nails and padlocks. Balls. We all learned something
that day though… we learned that thoroughness brings reward, and that those
rewards are made all the sweeter by the prior frustration of difficult access.
After checking almost every door and window in the vicinity, I managed to find
a single padlock to one of the wards that had been sheared and concealed and we
were in like a shot. The corridor immediately led to stairs up to the wardroom
itself, where we found some thought-provoking leftovers. In one section, we
discovered Christmas cards to patients from staff in 1997 and pencil drawings from
a Polish lady who’d been a resident in the ward.
Despite being
inside, we hadn’t let up our guard on caution and it was a good job. TheMuffin
spotted a security bod, some way off through the window. Bino-time! It
seemed he was simply driving around the perimeter and was checking some of the
unfenced buildings near the cricket pavilion. Of course this did make us a
little nervous, and definitely put an edge on the day. We thought it was safe
to assume that there would only be the one guard, and that checks on the inner
compound and building interiors would be minimal, but given some of the vandalism
inside, it was probably wise to assume that we’d get tarred with the same brush
and utterly shat-on if we were caught. Nevertheless we continued cautiously
through the ward and eventually emerged downstairs again, and left through the
same door we’d used to come in.
The rest of the exploration
was carried out with the same degree of caution and thoroughness. We managed to
gain access into a few other unsecured doors and windows, most notably into the
patient bank! (We couldn’t work out what the hell the average psych patient
would need to spend money on, given that these facilities tend to be self
contained communities in themselves?) Vaulting the bank service counters
enabled us to get into the main admin building. Now every time I go to the
bank, I’m going to remember the three of us leaping through the hatch like a
regular bunch of badasses, and I reckon that’ll make me smile! We spent the
rest of the afternoon looking through this building and attempting to gain
access to some of the hundreds of other doors around the hospital, generally
without success. In all seriousness, yeah, we had a great day – even wandering
around the outside of the buildings is a pleasure, but this place is banged up
so tight, there was so much we sadly couldn’t see without breaking our own
rules and gaining access through vandalism. Some of the best things we had to
pass on were of course, the tower, the HUGE central chapel with amazingly
intact stained-glass windows and the higher security wards with barred windows.
The potential for exploration is massive, but you’d have to think very
carefully about exactly how to discretely gain access, because as I’m about to
tell you; security are out to shaft you.
We were on our way back
around the hospital between buildings and the fence, when from the undergrowth
near the main entrance, we heard a small diesel engine being turned off and the
main gates being opened. We had absolutely nowhere to go but back on ourselves
and so we hoofed it back to the garages and crematorium, hoping we could get
around the hospital clockwise. It turned out we couldn’t, we were well and
truly cornered and after ten minutes we realised we’d have to bide our time and
tried to hide. The security car then passed us around the other side of the
hospital and TheMuffin swore blind that we’d been seen, so we just
legged it around to the other side again and then, very stealthily made our
break for the gap in the fence. I’m both pleased and amazed to say we weren’t
caught. Totally surprising due to the fact there’s only ONE single break in the
fence! We were expecting the security guy to be there waiting for us in all
honesty. Damn we’re good. Heh.
So all in all, a great
success. We had a whole lot of fun and left Park Prewett with some great urbex
memories.
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