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St Georges Asylum History

St Georges Asylum was originally named Stafford County Asylum, it was built at a time where Pauper Asylums were being constructed all over the country. It opened in 1818, large enough to hold 120 patients. In 1879 a large detached wing was added to the south-eastern side, adding capactity for an extra 90 patients. In 1884, the asylum was once again expanded. This time to the north western side, work was extensive costing in the region of £40,00 and the new buildings included workshops and bakeries. Total capactity was now circa 870 patients.

As with many country asylums, it was wound down and closed in the mid 90's. As of 2008, it is in a poor state. The entire roof is missing from one side, which has resulted in major damage to the floors. The main hall is burnt out, supported by scaffolding, various other parts of the asylum have seen damage from fire. It is Grade II listed, and recently a large sign has gone up showing the proposed new developments as apartments.






When I lived in Stafford this place was on my walk into town, so I have been in there countless amounts of times. Below is a passage off my site which sums up some bits of the asylum.

Access to this site is always fun, two fences, a jungle brambles and then actually gaining entry to the building. Once inside it is easy to understand why there are two fences, and so many warning signs; this place is trashed. As you can see from the aerial shots, there is a large section of the roof missing. This has caused severe damage to the upper floors, some parts are also burnt. With any site, it's best to assume that any floor you are about to stand on is not safe. This is especially true at St Georges. There are sections within the building that have been cordoned off, and when you look down into them the reasons are obvious. Not a safe place to be.

Climbing through a broken door, weary of opening it as it seems to be supporting the frame work above and Walking down the coridoors, past the rooms I did begin to wonder why had been set out like this. The coridoors are very wide, and the rooms quite small. The rooms themselves are painted in a variety of colours, and have lovely archways above the doors with tiny slit windows in the doors.

The main hall is burnt out, and supported with scaffolding. There is extensive damage to the stage area, there is not a lot of the stage left and what is there is not very safe to climb onto.

The chapel is odd, it is on the first floor. It has been stripped, but the roof is still pretty much intact and despite the glass being missing the windows still look in good condition. The chapel has two main areas, not entirely sure why. The main, bigger area is such a peaceful place to be though, the window blowing through just makes it seem more surreal.

From most points in St Georges you can see the water tower. It's a brick built tower, with small windows at various levels, a water level gauge on the side and a massive metal tank on top of it.

Access to the tower was tricky, but with some tips off OT from 28dayslater it was doable. It's a bizzare place to be, and in the base of the tower there is abspestos everywhere. The top of the tower is odd, you climb up through a large pipe and appear in the middle of the main water tank. Looking out and into the inside of the tank you can see the metal framework of the tank, the workings of the depth gauge and lots of pidgeon crap. The views from the top are worth it though.





































Ok, I won't post any more photos in here but there are a load more on my site;

http://urban404.net/stgeorges_gallery.php

( i know i've cocked up the EXIF data on some of the images so my script is throwing an error up )

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most of that has been destroyed / missing. there are some plans of the building / electrical system / extension etc in the workshops but thats quite heavily damaged too, as there is no roof on that bit! the only bit of equipment left is 'The King' (pill sorting / mixing machine);