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Report - - Whitchurch Hospital/Cardiff City Asylum - 2016-2018 | Asylums and Hospitals | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Whitchurch Hospital/Cardiff City Asylum - 2016-2018

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SpiderMonkey

BrushMonkey
Staff member
Moderator
Over the past couple of years I've payed a few visits to this huge former asylum, discovering parts that were new to us each time. The first few visits were cut short, either due to internal areas being locked up in the early days, or setting alarms off in some of the more secure wards, and there's also that time we had to run away from what seemed like an army of security guards on our first visit in 2016 when it was just entering its full decommissioning phase. On these early visits we rarely saw more than a couple of wards and a corridor or two.

Late last year, we turned up late one night after running out of leads to see if we could get inside, only to find a brand new palisade fence had been put in place, with new floodlights and rotating cameras complete with IR sensors. It definitely presented a bit more of a challenge than what we were used to, but it also presented the possibility that there could be no one based inside anymore, meaning potential access to all areas, which was mostly confirmed when we found our way inside that night.

In more recent visits, the fence has become increasingly obsolete, kids are near enough always hanging around inside the site, in the pavilions and in some parts of the building, smashing the odd window and making a lot of noise. We found this on our last trip here, where we decided to camp inside for three nights in one of the nicer and more furnished wards, which was a pretty fun experience. The power is still on in most of the building, which enabled us to cook using a microwave that was left behind in one of the staff areas, we even bought a cheap kettle for coffee in the mornings.
Because we got to spend so much time here, it meant we got to see a lot more of the hospital than he had seen before, and I'm glad we returned as we'd missed some of the best parts previously.

A Little History

Cardiff City Asylum was built in 1908, cost £350,000, and took ten years to build. It was built as a fully self contained institute, with a power house, water tower and farm.

During WW2 part of the hospital was used as a military hospital, treating US, UK and German military personnel. The hospital retained 200 beds for public use which enabled the early treatment of PTSD of military patients.

In the early 2000's a programme was put into place, which was to eventually phase out the current and aging building, and fully replace services, as the hospital was becoming unfit for purpose for the time.
Plans for residential developments on the site had originally been brought up in the mind 90's, and provisionally agreed in 2001. In 2012, the planning permission for this scheme as renewed of another 4 years, which brings us to 2016, when the last remaining services in the hospital left and were relocated, and the hospital scheduled to be "dismantled" and redeveloped.

Photos -

The few photos I got from my first visit in 2016 with @AndyK the morning after it had been published in the news papers, unknown to us:

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That's pretty much the full extent of that visit. Shortly after we stupidly walked by a camera, and given the situation at the time with the newspapers and someone being arrested here days ago, the security (and extras) were hunting us down and pretty quickly too. So we dodged into a small staircase and watched them all march past. So we decided to call it a day there.

Then we have that time we were accompanied by @Ojay and @PROJ3CTM4YH3M when we managed to see a slightly larger section than before, with some nicer bits:

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This visit was also sadly cut short due to a random alarm in another ward, so we decided to finish there and come back another day.
 

SpiderMonkey

BrushMonkey
Staff member
Moderator
Continued

The next bunch of photos are post 'new fence' - late 2017 to 2018. This is when this place really got good, after the fence, pretty much everything opened up and there were no more issues with security.

Wards -

The 'Ivy Room' in more recent times -
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West Gorllewin - 5a has been closed off for quite some time and was left whilst the rest of the place was refurbished -

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Also in the sealed off section -
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One of the hospitals best features is its corridors -

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The recreation hall here is one of my favourites ever -

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These two photos show the difference in condition, one day apart. These were taken on the weekend we camped inside, and on a few occasions we found kids smashing the place up in groups.
I don't think this place will stay this good for too long.

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SpiderMonkey

BrushMonkey
Staff member
Moderator
Continued

Therapeutic Baths -

These were later re-purposed as sports showers.
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They back onto this nice room-
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Physiotherapy -
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Pathology labs -
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Day Hospital -
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Stores -
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Gym and newer physiotherapy dept -
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Salon -
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Admin -
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I've condensed this report down a fair bit, but hopefully there's enough coverage here. Cheers for looking!

 

tumbles

Crusty Juggler
Staff member
Moderator
Lovely stuff. Still fucked if I can remember where the mocked up isis ward was. Maybe they’ve cleared it out since. West 5/5A are proper decay porn. If nothing happens for a while with the place I hope the rest age a bit too.
 

Brewtal

28DL Regular User
Regular User
Absolutely fucking superb mate! Me n my mate had the joys of getting nicked here on our second visit a few months ago. They were looking for someone else who was spotted early in the morning climbing the fence and after nabbing him he had the decency to tell them we were asleep upstairs. Fucking grass! Gotta love waking up with a dog in your face. Absolutely dying to get back and do the rest of it now after seeing this! Top work mate, really enjoyed that!
 

Speed

Got Epic Slow?
Regular User
Didn't realise there was a gym! Shows how good the place is really after 6 or so visits I've still missed massive bits. Maybe one more trip before summers out. Must be some epic hiding in there still
 
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