Barrow Gurney : The abandoned asylum

The hospital area from above (Cropped from google maps)

I first saw photos from Barrow Gurney on instagram and my interest for street art and urbex was awakened. I had to go! At arrival only two of the original buildings left, but enough to explore.

In order to prevent over crowding at the existing asylums in Somerset in the 1930s it was decided to build a new mental hospital in Barrow Gurney. Work began in 1934, finnished in 1937 and opened in 1938. The Bristol architect Sir George Oatley designed the the hospital made of red bricks.

In the 60's the hospital's population peaked at 453 patients but numbers began to fall as more provision was made for care at home or by community support workers. 

The abandoned Barrow Gurney Hospital left to decay

Long corridors on several floors to explore

The hospital is not well secured and I had to be careful walking inside

A JPS piece : Freddy

JPS piece with clear reference to Banksy's 'Balloon girl' and of course Stephen King

By 1970 there were about 200 patients in care at the hospital and the number progressively declined until in the 1990s. In 2005 a national survey of NHS hospitals was carried out and Barrow Gurney became famous for being the notorious 'Dirtiest hospital in Britain'. Barrow hospital had particular poor standards of hygiene with "an unacceptably dirty environment". This harsh criticism led to the closure of the hospital. Two of the remaining wards were shut down immediately, and by 2006 the last ward closed it's doors and Barrow Hospital was left to decay.

Difficult to trespass sometimes

Parts of the indoor areas are very dark

Madness and horror (Work by JPS)

JPS (Jamie Paul Scanlon) have during time made several stencils in an on the Barrow Hospital buildings. Some where left when I arrived. Many believes the place is haunted. Jamie have contributed with illustrations that underpin the the creepyness of the place. JPS is based in Weston-Super-Mare near Bristol. JPS have made several street art works similar or inspired by Banksy. In an Interview about the works in Barrow Gurney JPS told "I did not have permission to paint at Barrow however i knew it was going to be demolished and security there very weak so it was a perfect place to make sure I got my work looking right although they still get painted in a very short amount of time I never had any problems although it’s pretty dangerous there. The Settings in which I paint my work is very important to me everything has a place in my eyes." 

I explored Barrow Gurney alone and took in the creepyness and horror of the present and the past and left Barrow Gurney when it was about to get dark.

Good Bye (stencil by JPS)