Lets start with some history about this place.....
St Crispins was a large psychiatric hospital on the outskirts of Duston village in Northampton, Northamptonshire, England.
It was established in 1876 as the Berrywood Asylum and closed in 1995.
In the architect's typical style already used at Macclesfield and to some extent, Hereford asylums, red brick was used extensively as principal construction material, with white or blue brick for decorative dressing, banding or window arches. Windows were of timber, multiple paned sash type and decorative wrought iron balustrading was applied to embellish the tops of canted bay windows and slate roofs. The most distinctive feature of the site was the water tower, visible for a considerable distance and decorated with a clock on each face. This stood in the centre of the main asylum, looming over the recreation hall to the south and administration block to the north and although not attached directly to either, formed a major part of the composition of both.
St Crispin Hospital briefly entered the news when a fire killed a six patients who were resident on Schuster Ward, within the main building.
Sectorisation and then reprovision led to the relocation of services away from the St Crispin site, with separate services being developed at Kettering and Milton Keynes, as well as elsewhere within Northampton itself.
During the early 1990s at the outbreak of the First Gulf War, several closed wards were upgraded ready to admit any injured members of the armed forces should the need arise but this was never required. The hospital gradually contracted as wards became disused, eventually leaving those located within the Pendered Centre and the main building was closed in 1995.
Its chapel was decorated by the Northampton artist Henry Bird. Following the Hospital's closure the Chapel was purchased by the Greek Orthodox Church and is now in regular use by the Greek Orthodox Community in Northampton.
On to our explore myself my partner and his son went on this one when we turned up it was all secure or so we thought myself and the little one (not so little his 11) hung back in the car while his dad when and scouted for a way in. He came back with a way in and once we were sorted off we all went. so we got into the first building as always frirst thing the other half looked for was a basement and bingo there was one so went went off exploring then hear above us people running around then went quite so we made our way back up to the first floor with our flash lights on to scare the hell out of some kids who started screaming and running all over the place.
These kids proved to be loud and annoying so the min we got the chance we took off in another direction as it was becoming clear they wanted to annoy security.
We had a very nice explore of the hospital bumping into other people who were also avoiding the kids as we were at the time.
We could still hear the lads running around screaming and shouting so when we finished in the last building we decided it was time to leave before we ran into security.
Upon leaving we were driving out the car park we see all the young lads one comes over to the car to inform us that security and police were chasing had chased them off site.
Great explore thats for sure. Please enjoy the photos.
The otherhalf taking the lead.
The other Half and his young lad.
Please let me know if this is right or if there are any problems. Thank you.
St Crispins was a large psychiatric hospital on the outskirts of Duston village in Northampton, Northamptonshire, England.
It was established in 1876 as the Berrywood Asylum and closed in 1995.
In the architect's typical style already used at Macclesfield and to some extent, Hereford asylums, red brick was used extensively as principal construction material, with white or blue brick for decorative dressing, banding or window arches. Windows were of timber, multiple paned sash type and decorative wrought iron balustrading was applied to embellish the tops of canted bay windows and slate roofs. The most distinctive feature of the site was the water tower, visible for a considerable distance and decorated with a clock on each face. This stood in the centre of the main asylum, looming over the recreation hall to the south and administration block to the north and although not attached directly to either, formed a major part of the composition of both.
St Crispin Hospital briefly entered the news when a fire killed a six patients who were resident on Schuster Ward, within the main building.
Sectorisation and then reprovision led to the relocation of services away from the St Crispin site, with separate services being developed at Kettering and Milton Keynes, as well as elsewhere within Northampton itself.
During the early 1990s at the outbreak of the First Gulf War, several closed wards were upgraded ready to admit any injured members of the armed forces should the need arise but this was never required. The hospital gradually contracted as wards became disused, eventually leaving those located within the Pendered Centre and the main building was closed in 1995.
Its chapel was decorated by the Northampton artist Henry Bird. Following the Hospital's closure the Chapel was purchased by the Greek Orthodox Church and is now in regular use by the Greek Orthodox Community in Northampton.
On to our explore myself my partner and his son went on this one when we turned up it was all secure or so we thought myself and the little one (not so little his 11) hung back in the car while his dad when and scouted for a way in. He came back with a way in and once we were sorted off we all went. so we got into the first building as always frirst thing the other half looked for was a basement and bingo there was one so went went off exploring then hear above us people running around then went quite so we made our way back up to the first floor with our flash lights on to scare the hell out of some kids who started screaming and running all over the place.
These kids proved to be loud and annoying so the min we got the chance we took off in another direction as it was becoming clear they wanted to annoy security.
We had a very nice explore of the hospital bumping into other people who were also avoiding the kids as we were at the time.
We could still hear the lads running around screaming and shouting so when we finished in the last building we decided it was time to leave before we ran into security.
Upon leaving we were driving out the car park we see all the young lads one comes over to the car to inform us that security and police were chasing had chased them off site.
Great explore thats for sure. Please enjoy the photos.
The otherhalf taking the lead.
The other Half and his young lad.
Please let me know if this is right or if there are any problems. Thank you.
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