Graylingwell Hospital - on a very rainy day

Opening in 1897 as the West Sussex County Lunatic Asylum, Graylingwell Hospital in Chichester was practically the last of the grand Victorian asylums to survive on the south coast. The final psychiatric in-patients left in 2001, and thereafter the site was wound down with some use for more administrative purposes, before finally closing in 2009. During this period, whilst much of the site was unused and empty, it was very well secured, with sensible regular security, some exterior sensors and the simplest of security techniques – screwing every door and window down tightly with angle iron from the inside.

The site was sold to Linden homes and in 2010 demolition/conversion started. Cue the best opportunity to explore when security was slightly relaxed but before major demolition had occurred!

I found myself with a free day after meetings got cancelled and I had some vacation to use up, and so decided on a solo jaunt at the last moment. A soaking wet morning beckoned, but I'd not realized just how leaky the buildings had become! I've left the natural soundtrack on the video for about the first third ... that rain really is inside the buildings!

It was a funny old place. In many ways it was awesome to have a fully formed and increasingly derelict asylum to explore but, where it’d been broadly modernized and stripped of the more personal stuff when they cleaned out, in the end it did feel a bit samey. However, it did have a particular stand out area! I knew the hall was good, but didn’t realize just how good! Behind the stage curtain, the stage was ace with almost a full fly and left with all its equipment and lighting! And then down the back, in keeping with most large asylum halls, there was the all important projection room, again with everything still in it including various films!

Anyhow, this footage has languished on an external drive for far too long, and so finally I got around to making my first exploring video in years! It was shot on my DLSR and naturally hand held, so full blown shaky cam. I could have stabilized whilst editing, but prefer to leave things "raw" to maintain realism.