Severalls Asylum opened as a mental hospital in 1913. The simple but elegant buildings contain some amazing corridors and doors. The hospital closed in the early 1990’s.
Colchester, Essex, UK Demolished History
Severalls Asylum in Colchester was built from 1910 and opened in 1913 as a psychiatric hospital. The buildings were designed by architect Frank Whitmore and cover an area of 300 acres. 2000 patients could be housed in the asylum which was based on the Echelon Plan. This arrangement allowed easy access between all wards, offices and hospital services, so staff or patients would not need to go outside to reach any building. [1]
The asylum was divided into two halves, one wing for male patients and other for females. Common services such as administration, laundry, kitchens and the hall were placed centrally between the two halves. The wings which extended outwards in a staggered pattern contained the wards on two floors. [2]
The buildings themselves have very few embellishments and are built in the Queen Anne style which is typical of the Edwardian period. The appearance was simple but at the time considered to be elegant.
As was the case at many mental hospitals especially during the 1950’s, psychiatrists were free to perform their own experiments on patients. Treatments often included ECT (electro-convulsive therapy) and frontal lobotomy.
Severalls hospital, along with many other psychiatric hospitals was closed in the early 1990’s. A few of the buildings on the site remained in use, albeit for different purposes until 1997. A couple of the satellite villas remain open today, along with a much newer building within the grounds. Work is due to commence to redevelop the site for residential use. It is expected that demolition work will take place once the adjacent new road is completed in 2014.
References
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severalls_Hospital
2. http://severallshospital.co.uk/#/history/4532878444
awesome set mate.
Great shots mate.
Love it!!
amazing – would love to visit.
It’s great to see the future. I was there in 1976. I longed for it to close down. I have a few 35 mm photo gloss prints from 1980’s I must find them and make gallery. Archive is valuable . Survivors Speak out!!!! What is going on in secure units of today!!! Gone full circle. Great pictures. Orfordness has military pagodas. Was 20th century a truly Dark Age?
Best years of my life working here started in 1979 to 1997
Amazing pictures , but it does look incredibly creepy !
So sad to see this lovely hospital, looking like this, I had the best years working there. And would so love to have one last look around. Great pictures
My mum worked in the admin department and we went to the nursery in the grounds there x.
Bet that can tell some storys
I went there one night with friends. It was haunting! Got some amazing photographs though.
Fantastic photo’s, my Mum worked there when I was at the local primary school and I used to walk to meet her after school, I found those corridors very eery then, they look like a work of art now! We’ve often talked about how it must look now, I can now show her, thank you. I hope they manage to preserve some of the buildings and the what were beautiful grounds. Teresa
I first went there as a voluntary helper at the summer fete then joined the Severals Concert Group putting on musicals in the Main Hall. Largest dance floor in Essex. I am now a professional actor and have fond memories of those years.
These are stunning, brilliant!! Louisa, think you might enjoy these.
I worked there from 78-89 and met some great people there , it was a beautiful place with lovely grounds . Its a shame it has been left to sit and rott .
Creepy place
Your photos are great…….each room must hold a thousand memories/story’s for everyone who worked there and even the guys who where inpatients
I trained and worked here as a nurse in the 80s and 90s….
great memories, sad to see it like this.
It does, it is one experience that I would have liked to have again. I had family that worked there and I remembered more from the day time. Nightime was eerie.
Were the murals added after…. or are they original how are they noy affected like the other paints…
I was just going to tag you in this
I have always wondered how Severalls hospital looked like! I have met and cared for a lot of ex – Severalls patients!!! The stories! The memories! I have always wondered if anyone was ever happy there! From a patient’s point of view! Most of it was horrific! There is a story that goes like this. … A young man dares to question his army father. The father gets him admitted to Severalls — that he must have been mentally disturbed to question his dad. I met this gentleman at the age of 80! It’s only in his late years he got diagnosed to fit mental healthcare package..all his life lived in mental hospital when it closed he wad shifted from one home to another! His stories are soo hard to listen to. Aaaanyway your photos have enlightened me. I can put faces to places. The ground were always revved an heaven by the patient! Ooh what mixed emotion! This has made me remember each and every ex Severalls patient I met and cared for !! Thank you.
Sevs had 8 miles of corridor
The fire was a long time ago when I was still in the concert group. It was a patient who started it and he stood outside the doors sayin ‘I did that’ and of course we all said no you didn’t but he actually did. Roland I seem to remember was his name.
I worked there for a short while brilliant place I visited it about 8 years ago now managed to grab me self a report to the nurse in charge sign ….. Still got it too x shame it’s gone x
What a stunning building! What is happening to it now? (Oh and who is Michael?)
Wow! My grandma & grandad worked here.. Grandma was in the sewing room & grandad was head chef.. Used to freak me out going in there…
I worked there to coral it is a shame.that hospital was awesome,l loved the club there used to go for a drink after work lol.
Just had a look at the photos, brought back many memories of when I worked there,in the kitchens many years ago. X
My mum and dad both worked there, I spent lots of time going there for parties etc. strange as it may sound I always thought it was a beautiful place, I’m such lovely grounds! It’s behind the house I grew up in will be strange not to see it there.
These pictures are really good worked on the wards during my training 1981 to 83 brings back memories, looks ghostly now !!
Thanks for responding to my curiosity so fast Andy! Kind of a shame that it can’t be restored but at least it will be used for housing and not a multi storey car park. AND you have preserved it by posting such wonderful photos – well done YOU! (Oh and slightly – ever so slightly – disappointed to hear that Michael is a real person and not a ghostly apparition)
My wife Cathy worked there – she loved the photos which brought more than one tear to her eyes – she recognised some of the rooms and murals. Well done!
I worked there for a lot of years happy and some sad memories but loved working therestaff were great and patients pity it closed.
I was a student nurse there 1993-1996. Amazing place amazing memories. I lived in. Remember what fun we had and drinking at the social club. The patients used to come up to me in the corridors and touch my long hair. Makes me so sad seeing these pictures. Becky
Ah such things as memories are made of….worked here from 86 to 91, the picture corridor of doors is Priory ward, used to be tiny cell like rooms behind those doors, would often come in to find faeces up the walls and all over the clients…
I know you did Wendy you worked there the same time as me
What fun we had in our lunch breaks P J lol
I know you did Wendy you worked there the same time as I did , remember going over the social club
ain’t that place haunted.
My Mother Inlaw was a nurse there in the 70’s. Apparently an alarm used to go off if one of the patients escaped. It could be heard across colchester
These photos are amazing! Memories tinged with sadness to see the place in such a run down state. I started in the September of 1976 training at the school of nursing and working following my qualification. Late shifts always gave me a bit of anxiety walking through the corridors after 9pm. Many days off were spent on the wonderful grounds surrounding the hospital as loved in the nurses home as a foreign student. I did not get the opportunity to return on a visit before the closure but have enjoyed the photos posted. I have since retired and can say that my working days at severalls were awesome
Awesome pics, my dad went here briefly after his stroke n hated it. You have to love the lines in the pics n play with light n shape,xx
Excellent photos!
I worked here on many occasions over the last thirty years will be sad to see the last of three mental institutions close
I started my nurse training at sevs and have many memories of the place. Shame you didn’t get a photo of the ballroom, I remember lectures there where patients came in and heckled the lecturer!
gave me the shivers.
Great pictures.
So sad to see it like this, but super photos. I used to like the shops the patients could use, they had a proper little world there. I was in and out over years (worked at CGH and had occasion also to visit when one ward was being used after it ‘closed’.)
I used to work in one of the Villa’s in the late 90’s. As a working mental hospital, some parts of it were best avoided, but even then, the architecture and grounds were magnificent. I was sad to hear it’s going to be knocked down, I’m sure they could have done something to preserve the heritage of the site
I worked for the catering firm there til it closed. Wonderful place full of history for a place so young.
I have even suggested my friends at MOST HAUNTED pay a visit there , but fear its too late.
Your pictures are great and brings back memories.
Thanks
Morgue fridge….. God I would so never live on the redeveloped site…….lots of hauntings I reckon,!
Amazing Pictures. trained as a nurse there in 97. remember the corridors well. the social club and canteen were the best though.
No one has mentioned what it must have been like for the patients!!! My nana was in there for 5 years. It was a horrible place to be. She died in there. Those ‘lovely’ little rooms that where no bigger than a cell and just as cheerless!!! Pull it down!!!!
I can remember watching my dad play football in the grounds and a man in full wet suit and flippers ran across the pitch. i then done a play there with an amature dramatics group used to reherse once a week then first showing was to patients was a bit scary for a 12yr old lol
I did my Nurse training at Severalls in 1977. Fantastic photographs. Thanks for the memories. x
Wow. Great pics. I know some people who still work there.
I didn’t know you did your nurse training there, I thought you trained at Notley!
I did my practice (ward work) at Notley and the classroom stuff at Severalls.
Wow, that brings back some fantastic memories. I worked there from 1986-1992.
mixed opinion good and bad memories there 84-87,glad to be part of team to intergrate and move people into community.im sure many patients have many horror stories.
I did my nurse training there 1994 -1997 when it closed. It was the School of Nursing base for Essex before it was transferred to the Poly in Chelmsford. I have such fond memories of my time spent in that very atmospheric place. So many of the people living there at the time had been there since they were babies because their 16year old mothers were considered to be “not right”. An awful thought. I also have lovely memories of “Arthur” who would burst into our lecture hall and shout ” I’d loik a cuppa coffeeeeee” Bless him. These photographs are wonderful and really capture the time and meaning of the place. Fabulous.
Incredible Pictures Thank you. Has it been demolished? I would love to go there.
Andy K Urbex Thanks for that. I’ll catch it while I can.
My parents house backs onto the Severalls Hospital grounds. I remember patients walking up to our back fence and having random conversations with us when I was little. My parents also used to run the New Years Eve dance in the main hall with the sprung dance floor for many many years. Unfortunately the majority of the buildings are now demolished. It’s terrible that such beautiful buildings can be demolished all in the name of progress.
the first 3 pictures and the corridors are my fave!
I lived in from 1980 to 1984 and worked on Ashley ward and St Michaels wards. Lovely times.
They certainly did, thank you for putting the photos there for us to share xxx
My sister worked there
i worked in severalls ashley ward st michaels and jenner ward with some lovely nurses happy times severalls was the good old days
I remember having to visit mum there when they used part of it as the general hospitals overflow, being Young and walking around there wasn’t a nice feeling, that’s for sure
I worked at severalls for many years and had some of the best times there. So sad to see it like this. So many memory’s
We tried to get in to photograph it but wasn’t allowed
I lived in Mill Rd from 1967 to 1976 & used to go to the concerts there.
anyone remember Martin pickett
wow! i love abandoned places
I worked as a security guard at this place in 1998, I was 18 then and I must saw it was and is still the creepiest place I have ever been. On several occasions I “things” would move inside the hospital while I walked the grounds at night. every other night I would have to carry out an internal patrol of some part of the hospital looking for people, there were areas the dog would not go and he would be tied and left to be picked up later; for example the ball room (I had to go under the sprung wood floor), the main kitchen, the nurses accommodation are a few. I remember an ex-patient escaping from Southend and making their way back to Severalls to “come home”.
This place served to fascinate me for years after including the unexplainable things that would happen in and around the building. Most guards would only last a few night shifts there, but me and a guy called Mike had a mutual understanding that if we needed assistance for whatever reason we would always be on stand by.
A beautiful place in the day light and could easily become a place of horror in the dark.
Goodness.. these photos bought back some memories. They actually made me quite breathless. My mother was admitted here when I was just a day old.. I was in there with her. My mum in one room and me in the next room with a glass window so she could see me. She had puperal psychosis, onset was immediately after giving birth to me. She was in and out of here, I remember visiting her on many occasions – particularly after the hurricane in 1987. Poor poor woman never got better.. sadly took her own life in December of 87… but several’s did their very best for her. I just remember those corridors and windows so vividly.. before the age of 5.. how mad is that?
Haunted
My nan rosina Lillian gooding died hear in August 1962 how do I find out weather she died naturally or killed?
Hi does anyone know of a nurse V.Wakeling? She would have been at Severalls in 1931, so anyone’s mum/gran perhaps?
Andy Kay I have a load more things i could elude to about this place, i worked there for over a year. Did you know the armed police unit SO19 used it on occasion for close quater training.
Most amazing photos! My paternal grandfather worked there in the early 1920s. He was unfortunately attackedby a patient and died of a brain hemorrage leaving my father, and his 3 sisters, orphan at 8 years old. I’m doing a bit of research on family members and knew my grandfather had worked at Severalls so I googled and found this site! Putting visuals into the family story. Many thanks.
Rosie Norman