IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Kershaw Drive, LANCASTER, LA1 3SY

I spent most of my working life in this building. In 1999 I helped close it and move the patients out. It is being renovated to a high standard to luxury apparments. I had a strong urge to go in and have a look around when previously I could not get out of the building quick enough!

A skyline view of Lancaster Moor Hospital. Designed by architect Arnold Kershaw, Lancaster Moor was built in 1882 as an annexe to accommodate mental health patients. It was later used by the NHS before closing in 1999. A Grade II listed former hospital in Lancaster is to be converted into homes in a deal worth nearly £68m. The Lancaster Moor Hospital building on Quernmore Road will be restored and 440 homes will be built in the surrounding woodlands.

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

Looking over the crumbling wall which formerly enclosed an 'airing court' for the patients to exercise in. The massive North Annexe in view. The three windows look out from the dormitories of former Ward 'B1'. Strange how I spent over 30 working years not wanting to be on the other side of that wall. Now I would love to go inside and have a look at the empty decaying pile.

The North Annexe, a Victorian (c.1880) extension to the asylum, which closed in 1999 (refer Pevsner).

The massive North Annexe has now stood empty for over 10 years with still no clue to its future use. I was involved in managing the closure of the hospital and the opening of new purpose built community units at that time. Ironically one of the new units built to replace the Moor has now itself closed lasting a fraction of the time the old asylum did.

The low building in the foreground is the former kitchen where thousands of meals a day were cooked for the patients. Beyond that is Starkie Hall, which in the sixties served as the dining hall. Hundreds of flat-capped inmates wearing green aprons would sit at long tables. As a small boy I recall being terrified by the noise and general commotion in the hall when visiting my father who worked in the offices which were under the large tower. The tree-lined grass bank with a wall around was an 'airing court', not for drying washing but for the inmates to get some fresh air under supervision.

The former 'County Mental Asylum' being converted into luxury flats. The massive North Annex housed thousands of patients.

Lancaster Moor Hospital which is now closed and being redeveloped.