234 Comments Posted by rich_edwards79

This is an unusual, but perhaps refreshing sight after all the pictures of vast, communal toilet and shower rooms in other institutions

It is kinda freaky that the curtains remain in situ when the place has been almost completely gutted otherwise...

My guess is that they were isolation cells, judging by the narrow glazed panel in each door.

Ron, my money would be on medical tests. Autopsies. Pathology. It's just a science lab. I doubt people were gagged, strapped down and subjected to freakish painful experiments and torture, if that's what you mean...

As was said on an earlier thread, IMHO it's immensely disrespectful to lie down in a morgue freezer for the hell of it. Tantamount to arsing around in coffins, taking pictures to prove how 'brave' you are (rolls eyes)...

As a 'Kirk' it's got nothing on Danvers, but it's impressive nonetheless. The burned out frontage and black holes for windows makes this one seem truly dead, with no hope of resuscitation.

Is this the admin part of the Kirkbride?

I love before-and-afters. So eerie seeing what changes and how so much remains the same.

I used to shop at ASDA (it's British subsidiary) which as far as I know soon to take on the Wal-Mart name. That was, until I found out about their buying practices and learned first-hand from a friend of mine how they treat their staff - Dickensian doesn't come close...

Soap dispensers in cars? Sounds like something from 'Pimp My Ride'!

Actually I would hazard a guess that Xibit &co. HAVEN'T tried fitting a soap dispenser to someone's ancient Chevy yet...

Thanks for that Motts... I guess it goes to show that not everything in newspapers can be relied upon.

And that there's a distinction between whether a building can be saved and the will to save it being there - and generally those with money seem loathe to repair old structures.

Perhaps the stigma of the mentally ill people who once resided here lingers on - at least in the minds of those charged with marketing any apartments carved from the shells of these immense buildings...

Sadly those of us who care about places like this tend not to win the Lottery very often :(

I think I've fallen in love with this immense ziggurat of a building (even though it's Deco and not normally my thing lol)... I'm a planning officer in the UK and I know conservation people who'd have this baby spot-listed in a heartbeat if it were this side of the pond. Whatever is done with KPPC, I hope that Building 93 forms the centrepiece. Imagine an apartment with a view like that!

I hope not! There's an empty space on my coffee table specially set aside :-)

Spok, when originally designed, these places weren't designed to be scary or to punish those within their walls. The Victorians were comitted to rehabilitation and believed that removing the mentally disturbed from the vast overcrowded cities of the era and allowing them to recuperate in attractive buildings in the countryside was the most effective means of accomplishing this. Hence the sprawling, wooded grounds and incredible architecture of the 19th and early 20th century buildings.

Psychiatry was in its infancy and the emphasis was very much on 'reform' - contrast any Kirkbride with a prison of the same era, the architecture of which undeniably suggests punishment and brutality (and deterrence!) It was only later that the asylums became overcrowded through lack of funds and changing attitudes towards the mentally ill.

But bear in mind these places were built not to punish but with the intention of helping people get better - based on the limited knowledge of the time. Keep that in mind and suddenly beautiful Gothic spires and stained glass windows don't look at all out of place.

I relatively little of asylums and institutional care methods (perhaps Lynne or Anna can fill in the gaps!) but the Victorian and Edwardian periods are something of an interest of mine.

Why haven't those been removed and stored away safely somewhere? Apart from anything else, they must be worth a few bob! I can imagine so many imbeciles wetting themselves with excitement at the prospect of destroying them with a well-praced rock :(

Is this part of the Kirkbride building or the 1900s part (I ask because that stained glass is almost Art Nouveau in design...)