IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Clifford Drive, ILKLEY, LS29 6FY

The ghosts of High Royds Christmas past! A bleak mid winter's day dawns again over High Royds. This shot was taken 2 days after Christmas 2007. This panorama shot was taken from the clock tower of the main administration building. Before reaching the clock tower the maze of silent empty corridors lay ahead, still in darkness filled with a most eerie empty atmosphere. The day was cold, overcast and the wind was howling with driving rain. Battered and rocked by the wind I attempted to get some steady hand held shots of the panorama huddled behind the low parapet wall. This was a bleak place. This is High Royds, A self contained town for the insane. High Royds was one of the last remaining psychiatric hospitals of its kind still functioning when it closed in February 2003. Opening on 8 October 1888 it was then known as West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum. It was the third establishment of its kind in the former West Riding of Yorkshire, The hospital site included at one stage a library, surgery, dispensary, ballroom, butchers, dairies, bakers and even its own railway. By the 1930’s a sweetshop, cobbler, upholsterer and a tailor were all added turning the hospital into a small self-contained village.

High Royds was one of the last remaining psychiatric hospitals of its kind still functioning when it closed in February 2003. Opening on 8 October 1888 it was then known as West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum. It was the third establishment of its kind in the former West Riding of Yorkshire, The hospital site included at one stage a library, surgery, dispensary, ballroom, butchers, dairies, bakers and even its own railway. By the 1930’s a sweetshop, cobbler, upholsterer and a tailor were all added turning the hospital into a small self-contained village.

The site of this former psychiatric hospital is being redeveloped for housing.

The site of this former psychiatric hospital is being redeveloped for housing.

This is away from the marble floors, Glazed tiles and grandiose of the Main administration block of High Royds. This is the side of High Royds the visitors wouldn't see. Here people considered unfit to live in society, would be kept under lock and key, and forgotten about as a problem nicely brushed under the carpet. Not all people interned in Asylums had mental health problems, single mothers whose only crime was to have a child outside of wedlock were considered a disgrace to society in Victorian days, and were locked away for there crimes against morality. Experimental lobotomies were carried out to try find a cure for insanity here. High Royds was one of the last remaining psychiatric hospitals of its kind still functioning when it closed in February 2003. Opening on 8 October 1888 it was then known as West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum. It was the third establishment of its kind in the former West Riding of Yorkshire, The hospital site included at one stage a library, surgery, dispensary, ballroom, butchers, dairies, bakers and even its own railway. By the 1930s a sweetshop, cobbler, upholsterer and a tailor were all added turning the hospital into a small self-contained village.

What I thought was a church tower is in fact the clock tower of the former High Royds hospital (now converted to housing) Image

Also known as the West Riding Lunatic Asylum, it closed its doors to patients many years ago. It was inevitable that much of the Victorian splendour would disappear as it is converted to a housing estate, but this central block is to remain.

This block has now been converted for residential use.

Opened in 1885 as the West Riding Lunatic Asylum - its gothic buildings certainly looking the part. In a more enlightened age it was renamed as a psychiatric hospital until its closure in 2003. It has now been adapted to private housing.

This block has now been converted for residential use.