28 Comments Posted by johnr

this is the lawns complex. when the hospital was built, the superintendant lived on site, in a big 'house' that was a part of the hospital, linked by 2 corridors, but seperate, locked off and private. it was a huge dwelling with about 7 or 8 bedrooms, offices , even a large private garden and allotment.etc etc. in late years, it was refurbished as a day centre for patients, with a cafe(where my wife worked) a shop, and a tv lounge, upstairs was a small library, a pool table and a full size snooker table, there was also a quiet lounge. and s taff room where the nursing staff devisede things to help the patients pass the day. the connection with the superintendant wasnt completely lost though. anyone who worked there will have known the road that leads up past this building from haighton mannor as 'supers(superintendants) hill'

i think this is in the laundry store room

this is either ward 7 taken from ward 6 or ward 14 taken from ward 15. the building was built with a mirror image of itself, as you will see from the google earth pics, so this could be either, a bit of detail in the background might make it easier to id, but i would think its probably ward 7

when i worked there, the place wasnt the depressing nuthouse it seems here, add in a couple of thousand patients, and as many very very dedicated staff and it was actually a generally happy place to be. we tend to look upon asylums as bad places, but whittigham did offer asylum from the world outside, it was a complete community seperated from the pressures of the outside world.
and if this is on ward 12, then the door at the end leads to the old hospital laundry

most of the abuse wasnt done on 16, it was on the ward next door, another 3 storey block that was formerly ward 8, after the enquiry, in a bid to remove any stigma, the ward was completely refurbished and re opened as ward S, therefore whittinghams wards in st lukes went 1+2(langdale unit, mixed sex), 3(female) 4(male) 5-corridor ward, no patients, but all cells unused when i was there just offices and the hospitals 'black museum', 6(f), 7(m) ward S-formerly wd8 (mixed on 3 floors) ward 9-again a corridor ward but used for the hospital libraryand other offices , wd 10(mixed-blind unit) wd 11(m) wd 12(f) no wd 13, obviously!!, wd 14-(f) formerly the tb ward, wd 15, male, and wd 16, mixed.
wards 3,4,S(8) 16, 11 and 12 were 3 storey wards the rest, , 6,7, 14, and 15 were 2 storey. there were another 3 hospitals on site as well as this one, st lukes, so the numbering actually went up to ward 46.

iirc, this ramp leads up to the main coridor from the langdale unit. a few pictures back theres another view from the other side of the doors at the top(behind the arched door/window frame. the mortuary when i was at whittingham was in a seperate building with 2 small chapels of rest, one r/c and one c of e, and a big fridge for the bodies. in the centre was a big stone lined room with a post mortem theatre. after that was closed and demolished, they converted the rooms that used to house the hospital coblker, who in times gone by, made shoes and boot and also surgical built up shoes and clogs for staff and patients alike.

and the floor i have to asy(because ive been below it many times) is a propper sprung dancehall floor. the pic might not show how huge the place is either, the two spekers hung either side of the stage are about 8 feet high and the stage is getting on for 40 feet across. there are 3 full size badminton courts layed out on the floor. we used to skive off sometimes and go and watch the films in there, and the xmas dances were always good fun. happy days indeed!!!

one of the other maitainance men, a bricklayer called jimmy fletcher, had a great sense of humour, he used to make garden gnomes from a mould and plaster, paint them and then install them all over the hospital. in the top right hand corner as this pic faces, is a shelf, just below the roof, and standing on the shelf, watching the ballroom are two gnomes, two more are diagonally opposite them. if they could tell tales eh!!!!

and the red doors at the end led down a ramp into the old wards 1 and 2 which were known as the langdale unit, the only truly secure ward there when i worked at whittingham, between 84 and 95.

ive walked down this corridor many times!! the dooorway on the left is the entrance to the kitchen and potwash area, as you can see the rails on the wall to stop the trolleys of food fram damaging the plaster, opposite this doorway is the entrance to the ballroom.

the hospitals former physitherapist was a guy called ken fanner, he was a brilliant physio, and for the record, completely blind since birth. he was also a renouned church organist, and even built organs and refurbished them, despite his blindness. in his house in the grounds, the entire downstairs main room was filled with a huge church organ that he had built from parts. i was told by one of his staff that he was regarded as being one of the top organ players and experts in the whole world. he retired to a house near st ives in cornwall some years before the place shut. a remarkable man, who would weep if he knew of this organs state.

this was the roman catholic chapel, next door to the ballroom (you called it theatre, but in reality it was a ballroom, and also a theatre and even a cinema) this is taken facing where the alter was, the organ would have been behind the photographer.

this is takenin st lukes hospital at whittingham, on ward 's' the ramp leading up to the ballroom down 'ward s corridor' is just visible on the r/h side