Project Eden – Insane Mental Asylum
An abandoned asylum spread over a large site of disparate buildings holds the memories of a derelict mental asylum. I’ve been here on several visits and each time I notice something different and unique about it.
The overall site had been free from urban decay for some time however that has changed now, all of the sites have been aggressively robbed of any metal that can be resold, the damage done to the buildings is significant which sux really… Holes have appeared in roofs where copper has been ripped out of the lofts and water damage is reeking havoc on the internal structures.
Still, the character remains of the entire site, eerily tranquil and deafeningly peaceful.
Last time was the worst, a building that was previously locked has been broken into – when I entered through a small window, it was quickly apparent that the building was being used as a squat for junkies – needles, belts, cooking spoons and other paraphernalia littered the floors, makeshift beds were in every room and strangely, tins of dog food were everywhere.
Buildings that are accessible range from living quarters which contain all functional services such as kitchens, bathrooms, living areas and bedrooms. There are two large wards which are all accessible alongside a hospital block. The site canteen is also available to enter, this is a large dark building!
The best part of this explore was being able to enter ‘The Old Hall’ which is a period large building and security is very tight as there is a criminal secure unit on the same site.
As for safety, the buildings are still OK – not sure how long for and some of the buildings have some really strange fungus/bacterial growth!
Hydrotherapy is closed...
Such a shame, the hydrotherapy and gym units have now been demolished. This was a great place to shoot
Bacteria grows from the roof
This shot was taken in the newly custom built living wards – the mold was left a patch in the roof that looked like something out of a sci-fi
Cleaning contracts are history
These toilets were part of the maintenance block – looked grim but light was good
Junkies own this place
I had not been able to enter this living block until this visit. One of the windows had been kicked in, when I entered, there was beds set up, needles/syringes littered the floor and human food/dog meat was all over the place. I started to make my way through then heard some noises coming from one of the rooms. I got out of there, frickin junkies aint my thing… I later had the police come and talk to me, they confirmed a bunch of people had been living in there and they were removing them. Sadly, these wards are no longer here.
Hallway from one of the wards
This hallway leads down one of the main villas which is still there. The villas have been left with many artifacts intact however have been substantially ripped off by junkies/thieves. When we were there, people were in the building smashing it up – needless to say, they won’t be going back in a hurry 
Day Room at Little Plumstead Hospital
Decaying room
Part of the gym/changing area outside the hydrotherapy which contained several bits of equipment and lockers which still had artifacts from the previous employees inside. This area has been demolished now
Outside the morgue
Inside the chapel/morgue
This is labeled as the morgue in the site plan however inside it looks more like a chapel – maybe sometime converted. Not much of interest in here apart from a alter etc
The Old Hall
The old hall - Little Plumstead
What an awesome looking building. It took several attempts before I found a way to shoot the inside, I was not disappointed.
Inside 'The Old Hall' - Little Plumstead
Inside 'The Old Hall - Little Plumstead
Decaying room inside the 'Old Hall' - Little Plumstead
This room was covered in a green slime where the NHS had left the building rot. Its a shame as the roof had started to fail, the NHS had forgotten about this until recently – the roof has been repaired however I would guess substantial damage has occurred
Inside the 'Old Hall' - Little Plumstead
The architecture inside here is pretty amazing however its all started to fall to pieces. In the loft, original fixings remain, these include a drawing board and candle holders
Decaying hallway inside 'The Old Hall' - Little Plumstead
Canteen and offices at Little Plumstead Hospital
This part of the site was pretty cool as I found something in one of the small rooms. It looks like the patients at Little Plumstead were used in a sleep analysis test. The equipment has been left and includes everything down to packed electrodes and instruction manuals on how to analyse sleep patterns – there are also documents that shows the emails setting the experiments up
Thats about it for Little Plumstead – the site is now being redeveloped for a day care center
Hope you enjoy
sophos9
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awesome place mate!
really have to go to the uk soon!
Thanks dude, but this place will be gone – most of it has already been demo’d
It is still there…. I explored what I could last week….
Unable to access the main hall due to contractors working on site at the time…. but managed to get into one of the other buildings. Plan to go back again with my camera very soon… at a more suitable time. The place is mostly boarded up but there are accessible windows upstairs….. Wish me luck, Lucia
Easily the best photographs i’ve seen of Little Plumstead so far. I’ve driven past on hundreds of occasions without a clue of what a good explore the place really is.
Would you be able to give anymore information on how soon they’re demolishing? And whether it is easy to enter the buildings, as well as wonder around outside?
Seriously impressive work, thank you for sharing
Hey Charlie, thanks for leaving a comment and sharing your thoughts on the photos.
Demo is happening quickly, in a 2 week time span, 3 of the living quarters, hydrotherapy, gym and doctors rooms are now gone – 3 villas remain however have been locked down by security. The Old Hall is always locked down and the surgical ward I’m unsure about. Shame as this was a good camera training ground.
Walking around is a mare, there is a criminal high secure unit on site an the police regularly drive around – they have no problems stopping you an running details. Site security is active as always
Hope that helps
It looks like a matter of leaving things too late in that case, however Uni term doesn’t start for a while so i guess it’s worth the risk! I can flutter my eye lashes and give them the “i’m a girl, i’m awful with maps and i got lost” line.
Thank you for getting back to me so promptly, do you have a flickr?
Good luck with the explore – its still worth a look around. Yep – flickr is just my name – http://www.flickr.com/photos/sophos9/
hey. me and my bf have been looking thru ur photos and things. this looks like an awesome place to visit. when was the last time u managed to get in,are u able to still get into any of the buildings? looks worth the risk of gettin a telling off from the police. thanks x
Thanks for looking. Check out the forum for info like this
In the early 80′s I sat beneath a glorious plaster ceiling in a room in the Old Hall where I was to spend periods of time completing my training as a nurse for people with learning difficulties. (not a mental asylum) At that time the whole of the ground floor was the nursing school and was occupied by students and tutors. I spent nearly 20 years of my career there and have nothing but fond memories of the staff and the residents. It was a close community then, and this evening I reflect on my day….attending the funeral of a nurse who worked there for many years, many ex staff attended also. We keep in touch, with each other, with the families of residents who have moved on, and with those residents themselves. Today we chatted about the fun times we had there, and the characters that we supported.
You may feel the concept of the place is archaic, but it was ‘cutting edge’ in its day. I believe the property was originally donated for its purpose by a benefactor. Someone once researched and wrote a history of the place and there was an archive of photos and artifacts.
It is sad that my glorious ceiling, scrutinised to pass tedious lectures, now appears to be mostly on the floor!
I too have photos….. of summer fetes, Christmas and birthday parties, holidays, of people who have passed away or moved away. Those empty rooms are filled with the ghosts of people’s lives.
The buildings may be desecrated but our memories are not.
Thanks for leaving the comment, must feel pretty strange seeing the place now having devoted such a length of career there. The Old Hall has been left to fall, the inside shows signs of its once beautiful architecture – as its a listed building, the roof has now been fixed so should stop further deterioration.
The newer villa’s (living areas) on Firs Lane have now been demolished along with the gym and hydrotherapy unit. The villas still remain (Beach House etc). Plans are to build a school on the site/day care centre on the site.
I’ve heard that in the day, the site was very well equipped – even had a cinema for the residents.
Do you have any photos of the site that you could share for a comparative view? I would be happy to add them to the above article along with any other information you would like to see?
Thank you for leaving such a beautifully written comment. I too shared every inch of that ceiling.
That’s a fine staircase in the Old Hall and valuable too. Should be removed before it’s destroyed. It would make a fine addition to any house that can accommodate it. Notice the barly-twist baulsters.
Hi Stuart, thanks for the comment
The Old Hall is a protected building and is not being demo’d, not sure of future usage plans however work has been done to sort roofing problems
i remember those stairs well falling down them and being pulled up them by my fellow students in the 1980`s
I happened to Google Little Plumstead Hospital just out of curiosity as I started basic training as a male nurse there in what must have been around 1959/60. I lived in the nurses quarters, but unfortunatly I was only there a short period of time as it was not for me as a career, I always remember the sad plight of young boys there anything from 5 years up, to teenagers and of course adults. Places like this from that era deserve to be closed down. I sometimes wondered why some kids were there as many appeared normal and had no problems. I can imagine some parents may well have put them there as they didn’t want them, as an alternative to adoption. All in all, it was a sad primitive era then, so glad we have moved forward in the past 50 years.
Shocking insight, lots of mixed accounts of the history at Little Plumstead…
Yes, a shocking insight, but I obviously didn’t like the bullying and abuse some male nurses gave to young kids. Good thing we close places like this and there are more regulations on the care of vulnerable people who ever they arein this day and age.
Hey, I spent most of my childhood here, i practically lived on the site. Both my parents worked here, I knew where everything was and every building and I really hate to disappoint you but there really were no trails going on. I went into every building and every room, nothing (unless it was top secret) was going on test wise. The electrodes were probably from the 50′s/60′s but it was just an old peoples home for the mentally disabled, calling it an asylum is incorrect.
In fact most patients loved being here, I remember a woman called maggie, she was lovely. Carol was a chain smoker and hilarious in her own way. This hospital had a communality to it, and was state of the art on some wards, there were sensory rooms for the patients to ‘chill out’ in (Parkside and Woodside had one) It was bad that this place got shut down. Patients have been split apart and sent out in the community to basically fend for themselves.
Patients who were expected to die before their 40th birthdays lived way into their 80′s/90′s, those sent into the community didn’t last long. I know this as fact. I was there.
This place was beautiful back in the day.
Sorry, one more thing. I could be wrong but the place you have listed as the morgue/chapel, is actually where the ambulance drivers used to drink tea :] It was their ‘staff room’ Unless its the building opposite that, which was always locked and as far as I was aware no-one from the late 80′s onwards used it, if it was indeed a morgue.
i agree ami i trained there and had a great time. it was sad at times but we were a community. some of those patients should never have been put in there. it was bloody hard work i am still a nurse but not in LD it made me grow up fast.
I trained here in the mid 70s. At the time it was considered to be a an example of exellence in care for people with learning difficulties.
I have many fond memories of working there and doubt whether care in the community will ever match some of the better aspects of the “institution” It was more of a self contained village with some exellent facilities, It had its own special needs school, a physiotherapy department with its own heated swimming pool, a hospital block,pharmacy, patients activity centres, a sports hall/theatre with stage, football field, bowling green, a shop and splendid hospital grounds with free gange peacocks roaming around. The place was pretty much self sufficient including a hospital farm, laundries and workshops. The standard of care for people with physical difficulties was very high and nurses took pride in their work. Many of the wards were open and there was a sense of safety and care.
However there were some wards that were locked and could only be descibed as inhuman in their care and some of the staff were brutal. I witnesse some pretty nasty incidents and am glad this aspect of the hospital has gone. Sadly though care in the community has left some people more vulnerable to abuse.
There was female nurse accomodation (A block)and accomodation in the old hall which was also the nurse training school. We had some lively times and wild parties there (I have been told the grounds were a good source of magic mushrooms). There was also staff accomodation for families.
I visited the site recently and found it quite depressing how the old hall is badly neglected, most of the old wards have gone and its been turned into a housing estate.
Oh and yes there was a morgue, many of the patients were buried in the hospital grounds.
Hi, stumbled across this site and another, a trip down memory lane, i was there 74 -76 as a nursery nurse, lots of great memories, Mick Gallop, Rod ? were nursing officers, the Old Hall was accommodation for nursing cadets, wild parties at the social club, lots of great stories, would be great to set up a website for ex staff and residents. So sad to think the hall is being allowed to deteriorate. I never witnessed any abuse in the care of children but was aware of stories about adult male wards and abuses.
four kids later i run a disability planning consultancy in Aus and support individuals to have great lives in the community
Diane Gow nee Munford
I now live directly opposite the Old Hall on that new housing estate. I’m shocked at how neglected the site is now and to see the pictures inside the hall just makes me even more sad. As a building, the Old Hall has an impressive history which is sadly crumbling. I hear it is now doomed to become luxury apartments!!
I am about to move on to the new estate and began to research the beautiful building, I did however find some information on the internet that there is a part of the hospital still open and it houses peodophiles with learning dissability!! i know this sounds crazy but this information was on more than one site. As I have a small child and am about to move on to the estate i would be interested in any info any one has on this.
Thanks
Ab
Yes, the unit is live and very much functional – same as the one around the back of St. Andrews in Thorpe. Ironically, they are building a new school on the same site. Take a drive up to the back of the old hospital grounds, around 18ft high green fencing.
Shame that no-one has told the local community, these places seem to operate very quietly, hidden in remote areas.
It is indeed true that the hospital is still open and has what is considered to be high risk patients living there although from what I have been told, they are not paedophiles. A friend of mine works at the hospital so this has come from her directly rather than being gossip. However, in the entire time that I have lived here, we have never once had any problems, it is a great place to live and I have always felt very safe.
Hi. Can anyone tell me the address for the hospital please & also whether or not the Old Hall is still standing? I have a huge fascination with such places & would love to explore it. Thanks in advance.
@SOPHOS9
I would be very interested in accessing the site & would be very grateful if you could help in any way please. Thanks.
How sad to see the old hall in such a mess, it was a lovely building, which was the School of nursing when I was there. I trained there 1987 to 1990. my parents did the same in the late ’60s. Both my grandads worked at LP too.
Great to hear of your experiences here… Looking forward to hearing of more