Lancaster Moor Hospital

Image: © David Dixon Taken: 24 Mar 2014

Lancaster Moor Hospital was Lancashire’s first County Lunatic Asylum. Designed by architect Thomas Standen, the hospital opened in 1816 as the ‘County Lunatic Asylum for the County Palatine of Lancaster’. In 1878 the asylum acquired land on the north side of Quernmore Road and a large building known as the Annexe was designed by the architect Arnold Kershaw and opened in 1883. Under the National Health Service, the asylum was renamed Lancaster Moor Hospital. The annexe and all associated buildings were all closed by 2000. The Asylum is a quadrangular building of stone construction, with a grand front, relieved by pillars of the Doric order, in the centre of the block over the main entrance is a clock tower about 100 feet in height, and there are smaller ones at the front extremity of each wing. The foreboding Gothic exterior is certainly striking and, as seen here from the M6, it has been said that it resembles “a gaunt grey penitentiary” http://www.lancashirelife.co.uk/out-about/places/lancaster_s_moor_hospital_to_be_transformed_in_multi_million_pound_housing_property_development_1_1924308 (Lancashire Life). The annexe building is grade II-listed (English Heritage Building ID: 383290 http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-383290-moor-hospital-new-block-lancashire British Listed Buildings) and, after lying empty for more than a decade, is currently being redeveloped to create housing, like many former hospitals. http://newhistories.group.shef.ac.uk/wordpress/wordpress/the-evolution-of-the-treatment-of-the-mentally-ill-how-lancaster-county-lunatic-asylum-changed-the-face-of-treatment/ New Histories : How Lancaster County Lunatic Asylum Changed the Face of Treatment http://www.proj3ctm4yh3m.com/urbex/2013/05/31/urbex-lancaster-moor-hospital-aka-lancaster-asylum-lancashire-may-2013/ Urbex: Lancaster Moor Hospital aka Lancaster Asylum

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