Urban explorers can find happiness at the enormous abandoned hospital complex known as Hellingly Hospital

Situated near the village of Hellingly in Sussex, England, the Hellingly Hospital, once a renowned mental asylum, was established to alleviate the strain of overcrowding at the Sussex County Asylum in Haywards Heath. Another name it was known by was the East Sussex County Asylum.

With overcrowding becoming a growing concern during the early 1900s, the County Council distributed resources and patients among multiple healthcare facilities. The 400-acre Park Farm estate, including a railway station, was acquired from the Earl of Chichester for a sum of £16,000. The hospital’s foundation stone was laid. In 1898, and it officially began operations on July 20, 1903.

George Thomas Hine, an architect renowned for his expertise in asylum designs, was chosen by the Lunacy Commission to create the blueprint for Hellingly. The Victorian-style hospital, complete with an electric tramway for coal transportation and an electricity plant, was constructed for £353,400 (approximately £42 million or $54.5 million in today’s currency).

Designed as an autonomous community, Hellingly Hospital’s layout allowed patients to engage in agricultural activities as part of their healing process. Core areas of the hospital, such as the kitchens, stores, administrative blocks, and recreational facilities, were interconnected by a maze of corridors.

Patient accommodation and work areas were segregated by gender. Male-centric facilities like the boiler house, water tower, workshops, and maintenance units were strategically placed on one side. At the same time, the laundry, sewing room, and staff accommodation were closer to the female wards. The property also boasted two driveways with various residences and facilities—a chapel catered to the spiritual needs of both patients and staff.

A separate annex was established southwest of the primary facility for patients with acute conditions. Another smaller hospital, nestled deep within the woods to the north, served as a quarantine for those with contagious illnesses.

In the post-war era, Hellingly Hospital underwent significant transformations, including introducing a new medium secure unit in the mid-1980s. Yet, as with numerous institutions in England, a shift in mental health care policies led to a decline in patient admissions.

The railway ceased passenger operations in 1930 and witnessed its tracks being uprooted in 1959. By then, the hospital’s boilers had transitioned from coal to oil.

The hospital eventually shut its doors in 1994, becoming a hotspot for vandalism and urban explorers. While a portion of the complex remains operational under the National Health Service as the Hellingly Centre, the original chapel persists amidst newly erected residences. By mid-2010, a part of the site underwent clearance for housing. The Ashen Hill secure unit, inaugurated in the mid-1980s, functioned until early 2012.

The site also hosts the Southview, a low secure unit inaugurated in 2000, and the Hellingly Centre, a state-of-the-art medium secure unit introduced in April 2012, housing 46 beds distributed across three wards, established at a whopping £17.5 million.

Source: abandonedspaces