Denbigh Asylum

Denbigh asylum was built in mid-1840s. Over the years it expanded to house more and more patients, reaching a maximum capacity of 1500 in the 1950s.

This asylum lasted roughtly 150 years when it closed in 1995. It is situated on over 100 acres of beautiful Welsh land (sheep, cows, hills, trees etc).

And by cows, I do actually mean cows.

Chapel

The first building we came accross was the Chapel. It looks delightful from the outside but everything, including the floors have been removed from the inside.

Main buildings

We finished in the chapel and moved onto the main complex.

It looks just like something you’d see in a scary asylum-based film. Pointy rooves. Tall imposing buildings. Tall imposing towers. Etc. I’m informed that it’s of a “Tudorbethan” design, rather than the more de-facto “Gothic” designs of the period. To be honest, I can’t really tell the difference. I think Gothic is more pointy and elaborate.

Corridors & Rooms

Inside is dark. Very dark. Out come the torches.

Sadly the last 12 years have not been kind to the asylum. Machinery has been stripped. Rooms smashed up by kids. Trees and nettles growing in the damp patches on the fourth floor. That sort of thing. It’s quite hard to think that people once resided here.

Main Hall

There was a nice glitter ball on the ceiling, but the rest of the hall was rather un-inspiring.

A real gem was the projection booth. This would’ve been used to show films to the patients. Sadly some prick had graffiti’d it

The Tower

Nearly everywhere we look, we can see the main imposing tower. It would be rude not to get into/onto it.

We made our way through the maze of corridors to roughly where it was. There was no obvious entrance. Lots of cupboards though. One of these cupboards wasn’t a cupboard though – it was a tiny secret staircase! Ascending it, we nearly got to the top. The wood was totally rotten so we ventured no further. Instead, we popped out of the window to sit on the roof for a bit of lunch.

More mooching around the corridors ensued.

Slabbed

On the way out we passed a small building. Inside we could see something. Something rather chilling…

Sadly it is smashed