Report - St Johns Asylum, Lincolnshire - Mar 2020

[vw_golf_nutter]

I know this place has been done a lot but a hospital has been on my list for ages so we headed over yesterday for a look around.Just a quick condensed report for those who dont know about it....

Opened in 1852, at its height the asylum had 944 bed and spanned 160 acres. There were male, female and children's wings and patients were known to have been treated for mental illness by way of shock treatment and brain surgery. The hospital had its own burial site and human remains were found while the site was being excavated.
The hospital closed as St Johns Hospital in 1989.
A lot of the site has been developed in to housing, unfortunately there was once a large water tower which was recently demolished, the remaining buildings are all Grade II listed.
This place is absolutely huge and made for a very interesting explore!
The access was rather fun squeezing through tunnels, there are also a lot of VERY soft floors so anyone visiting needs to be careful!
i took about 300 photos in total, we were there all afternoon but have picked a few favourites to share...

No more water tower :-(

 

[Down and beyond]

Love the photo of the walkway outside you took with the cast iron arches

 

[mockney reject]

Nice report that, I really should look at this one day, I spend enough time up that way

 

[MotionlessMike]

Yep, good stuff!

 

[raisinwing]

Lovely stuff, you've captured it well

 

[HughieD]

Great set of images. Been in my to-do list for ages.

 

[Calamity Jane]

Nicely covered. Great set there. Really gives you a feel for the place

 

[Bugsuperstar]

Great report!

 

[ASOM]

Well done on getting in, they are (or at least were) reasonably on-the-ball for quite a while here!
My first proper explore back in 2008!
Its funny that some views here look very different, where others could be exactly the same as 12yrs ago.
Always thought it was an absolute miracle it was empty for nearly 30yrs now and never burnt down.

 

[Fuzzball]

Good update and pics! A nice surprise to see! I thought this place had been wrapped-up and renovated long ago!
As you posted, a friend and I decided to give it a go a couple days after as I've missed nearly all the asylum action and I wanted to at least see this unusual looking one.
We also managed to access it, probably like you did, and despite it being totally stripped and very much in the process of being renovated/demolished - it really does still have its charms!

Accessing the site was fairly quick to find a gap to squeeze through, but you're surrounded by a main road, cycling/jogging path and houses on nearly all sides.
Accessing the buildings took a bit of walking around the site to find a discrete way-in, which involved some crouching and crawling.
Although you could just go for broke and simply stride past all the fleet of parked diggers out in the open as well, if you're feeling especially lucky.
We may have seen security in high vis at one point.... although it could have been other explorers, as I hear some wear high-vis as well, haha!

Thanks for posting!

 

[vw_golf_nutter]

Nice you got to see it too, we had to crawl through a tunnel which was fun but so worth it, I love it when the paints peeling, beautiful building and super glad to see it before its renovated

 

[princethorpe]

The cast iron archway is fantastic. Thanks

 

[Fuzzball]

Yes the tunnel aspect was actually really fun, especially as it's been largely stripped and somewhat safer. There's some top notch peeling paint in there yes! There's a very pretty bit with pale blue walls and green walls that (when the sun was shining) gave a breezy and airy Mediterranean feel, which was amplified as soon as you looked out of the window at that warm sandstone. And those archways (with the coat-of-arms on) do look great now they're exposed, even though it's a shame the the roof of the corridor has completely disintegrated. i hope they keep the acrhes somewhere in the building or at the least they end up in a new hospital or a museum.

 

[Seffy]

Wow, not seen anything from here for time. I too was under the impression that it had been fully demolished/converted/gutted etc etc. Thanks for the update

 

[jones-y-gog]

The cat mural is still there! Cool