Denbigh Asylum today...
At peak, there were over one hundred thousand patients within over one hundred mental institutions around the United Kingdom.
Denbigh opened its doors in 1848 and by the mid 20th century it housed 1,500 patients.
In the last decades of the asylums, psychiatrists attempted to cure patients, some of these procedures were simply barbaric.
From electrotherapy, to lobotomies, these were times before science had even began to understand the workings of the brain and people were being treated like test subjects.
This asylum, like many others, had grown to such a size that it made sense for it to provide for itself, with a full working garden and farm, the food provided was fresh and there was plenty to go around.
The patients who were able would contribute to the work load, out on the fields, in the kitchens and with the laundry.
The impetus to close asylums began in the 1960s but large-scale closures did not start until the 1980s.
Denbigh closed its doors in 1995 and has been left rotting ever since.
The closing of these institutions was a monumental change for Britain and many patients had a chance at a brand new lease of life on the outside.
This place really was a town of its own.
Some will say these places really did serve as true ‘asylums’ for those who would of otherwise had nowhere to go, others will agree these places are better off put far behind us and forgotten.
Whether they have been renovated, bulldozed or simply abandoned, the ‘madhouses’ will always remind us how far things have come.
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11 окт 2020
