Clayton Hospital in Wakefield, West Yorkshire was founded in 1854, it was named after Thomas Clayton who was the mayor of Wakefield. It formed following the merge of Wakefield General Dispensary and Wakefield House of Recovery.
The Wakefield General Dispensary was founded in 1787 and was the main centre for outpatients at the time. The Wakefield House of Recovery was founded in 1826 and was for poor inpatients suffering from infectious diseases. In 1852 the Wakefield Union Workhouse was completed and the hospital wards situated within accommodated individuals with disabilities that could not afford private care, it also housed patients suffering from severe fever. This meant that the Wakefield House of recovery was no longer required and closed in 1854. Nine years later in 1863 Mayor of Wakefield, Thomas Clayton, financed an expansion of the institution and it was renamed, 'The Clayton Hospital and Wakefield General Dispensary'. The site relocated from Dispensary Yard to its current location on Northgate in 1876 and the new building was opened in 1879. By 1948 the name was changed to 'Clayton Hospital' and the site became part of the National Health Service, its capacity had grown to 200 beds by this time. For the next 64 years, Clayton Hospital operated many specialist departments from hearing clinics to a sexual health department. In March 2011 Wakefield unveiled the new £250m 'Pinderfields Hospital' which deemed Clayton Hospital useless and no longer necessary, it closed its doors the following year in 2012 and the contractors moved in to remove the expensive stuff.
Clayton hospital was boarded up and left to wither away with no real plans for development......
And this is where the fun begins
Inside Clayton Hospital you will find corridors upon corridors of endless darkness and an eerie silence that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. Although the hospital lay abandoned for almost 5 years you can't help but feel like you are being watched from every direction by the eyes of all who perished within its walls. The interior has been mostly destroyed by vandals and squatters but certain areas of the hospital can still be identified. The mortuary is as quiet today as it was 50 years ago but with the holes in the walls that once had doors and preserved corpses give for a really creepy stay should you be brave enough to enter. A little further round is the surgery which by some miracle still has cupboards on the walls! Be careful not to fall down the hole in the floor which was left when the operating table was removed. You get a real sense of history while in the surgery thinking about how people may have been operated on 50 years ago, in the very spot in which you stand.
Once you have seen the interesting stuff the rest is mostly offices and old wards which housed the patients, oh and toilets, lots and lots of toilets. If you manage to find the staircase that takes you into the basement you had better hope that you have a good sense of direction. Once down there, you are confronted by brick tunnels which are about 4 feet high so don't wear expensive jeans because you are going on your knees! The tunnels branch off into tunnels which branch off into more tunnels so this is where that sense of direction comes into play, or you could just turn around and go back up the stairs into the corridor maze.
Dotted around the hospital in maintenance cupboards are ladders that give access to the roof, Although the roof is about 30 feet high and long distance views are not the best, the roof is one of the better spots to get good views of the whole building. If your into photography this is the time to get snapping! When the time comes to leave Clayton Hospital, that is providing you can remember where you came in, you get a strange feeling that something wants you to stay there for all of time, which, if you can't find the way out can cause panic to really set in. Everything looks the same within the hospital walls and in a situation like this you feel like the corridors are changing and the thing that wants you stay will soon have its wish granted. Then you finally turn that corner and enter the room where you came in and breath an overwhelming sigh of relief when you can escape the grip of Clayton Hospital and all the souls within.
Clayton hospital has been a part of our history since the 19th century and holds a million stories behind its doors. Although the hospital was set for demolition or renovation in early 2017, it still stands at the moment and has a permanent security patrol thanks to the arsonists. For how long the hospital will remain in our futures is yet to be seen but for those that have seen what lies within since the closure in 2012, both its wonders and its horrors will be the talk of the Urbex community for years to come.
If you like, please share with your friends
Thanks for reading
Liam
The Wakefield General Dispensary was founded in 1787 and was the main centre for outpatients at the time. The Wakefield House of Recovery was founded in 1826 and was for poor inpatients suffering from infectious diseases. In 1852 the Wakefield Union Workhouse was completed and the hospital wards situated within accommodated individuals with disabilities that could not afford private care, it also housed patients suffering from severe fever. This meant that the Wakefield House of recovery was no longer required and closed in 1854. Nine years later in 1863 Mayor of Wakefield, Thomas Clayton, financed an expansion of the institution and it was renamed, 'The Clayton Hospital and Wakefield General Dispensary'. The site relocated from Dispensary Yard to its current location on Northgate in 1876 and the new building was opened in 1879. By 1948 the name was changed to 'Clayton Hospital' and the site became part of the National Health Service, its capacity had grown to 200 beds by this time. For the next 64 years, Clayton Hospital operated many specialist departments from hearing clinics to a sexual health department. In March 2011 Wakefield unveiled the new £250m 'Pinderfields Hospital' which deemed Clayton Hospital useless and no longer necessary, it closed its doors the following year in 2012 and the contractors moved in to remove the expensive stuff.
Clayton hospital was boarded up and left to wither away with no real plans for development......
And this is where the fun begins
Clayton Hospital was once full of life.... and death
Inside Clayton Hospital you will find corridors upon corridors of endless darkness and an eerie silence that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. Although the hospital lay abandoned for almost 5 years you can't help but feel like you are being watched from every direction by the eyes of all who perished within its walls. The interior has been mostly destroyed by vandals and squatters but certain areas of the hospital can still be identified. The mortuary is as quiet today as it was 50 years ago but with the holes in the walls that once had doors and preserved corpses give for a really creepy stay should you be brave enough to enter. A little further round is the surgery which by some miracle still has cupboards on the walls! Be careful not to fall down the hole in the floor which was left when the operating table was removed. You get a real sense of history while in the surgery thinking about how people may have been operated on 50 years ago, in the very spot in which you stand.
Once you have seen the interesting stuff the rest is mostly offices and old wards which housed the patients, oh and toilets, lots and lots of toilets. If you manage to find the staircase that takes you into the basement you had better hope that you have a good sense of direction. Once down there, you are confronted by brick tunnels which are about 4 feet high so don't wear expensive jeans because you are going on your knees! The tunnels branch off into tunnels which branch off into more tunnels so this is where that sense of direction comes into play, or you could just turn around and go back up the stairs into the corridor maze.
Dotted around the hospital in maintenance cupboards are ladders that give access to the roof, Although the roof is about 30 feet high and long distance views are not the best, the roof is one of the better spots to get good views of the whole building. If your into photography this is the time to get snapping! When the time comes to leave Clayton Hospital, that is providing you can remember where you came in, you get a strange feeling that something wants you to stay there for all of time, which, if you can't find the way out can cause panic to really set in. Everything looks the same within the hospital walls and in a situation like this you feel like the corridors are changing and the thing that wants you stay will soon have its wish granted. Then you finally turn that corner and enter the room where you came in and breath an overwhelming sigh of relief when you can escape the grip of Clayton Hospital and all the souls within.
Clayton hospital has been a part of our history since the 19th century and holds a million stories behind its doors. Although the hospital was set for demolition or renovation in early 2017, it still stands at the moment and has a permanent security patrol thanks to the arsonists. For how long the hospital will remain in our futures is yet to be seen but for those that have seen what lies within since the closure in 2012, both its wonders and its horrors will be the talk of the Urbex community for years to come.
If you like, please share with your friends
Thanks for reading
Liam
Brilliant report.
ReplyDeleteThanks Samantha
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