i have to admit that the sign over the door is bugging me. why couldn't they centre the words? why?

i am SO ocd.

tommeh, that made me snort beer out of my nose.

i'll go first. who's with me?

*stops telling lies, runs in opposite direction*

i work in the local authority funded sector of this sort of work (on a very small scale compared with places like this) and even after three months (and i just work in the office) the job has blown my mind. to see the staff continuing to try to engage with and make a difference to their charges, even in the face of sometimes violent protests, makes me wonder what it must have been like in the overcrowded days of the huge US state institutions.

in the short time i have worked at my place i have already seen huge positive changes in some of the people being cared for. it's often a case of one step forward and two back, but it's progress nonetheless.

yes, bad things happened in places like this. awful, unforgivable things. but so did good things. if you stop believing in the basic humanity of people, what have you got left?

*shuts up*

i took some distinctly mediocre pics! key to it for me is looking at somewhere 15 miles up the road from me in rural england that motts made his own...seeing all that is worth every ounce of fear for me.

(this is of course utter bollocks and i was petrified every second. it was dark tho - 6am!!)

sian - just a bit! however, yesterday morning was the closest i've ever come to actually proper doing that! take one early morning (dark) visit to an empty asylum, a bad experience last time plus a strange noise in a deserted ward - instant laxative!

lynne - sorry...british vernacular. pikeys = people who like to call themselves "travellers" but are so far removed from romany traveller culture it's not even funny. they are currently busy stripping every ounce of copper from the cabling left in severalls. when we saw them leaving the other week they were loaded up with that plus about a million fluorescent tubes. now, each to their own and all that, but bumping into them when we're all technically breaking the law, them with big stripping knives and us with expensive cameras is not my idea of a good time!!!

although the next time we went we had a VERY bad moment - i remarked to my friend that a trick of the light was making it look like there was someone standing at the end of the corridor. about half a second later we realised someone WAS standing there. not a good moment!! turned out to be pikeys on the rob.

i was there again today. looking at this gallery is making me realise that even after 3 trips there's loads i haven't seen yet.

we went in the dark this morning. not a good thing for the overactive imagination!!

whoaaa, patsy....

in severalls one of the seclusion rooms had been designated the smoking room - how comfortable!

fit indeed..

*blushes*

i thought it was groove that was in the heart?

once you've actually visited an empty hospital it's amazing how it changes your perspective. i used to view and imagine - now i can place myself in your shoes, to an extent.

there's nothing like it. thank you.

big ed - that's scottish. wales is a whole other thing. look you :0)

i can almost smell the air in this one. fabulous.

even on close inspection it's no clearer. there may well have been a payphone there - there's certainly marks on the wall between the pipes to suggest that something was there that has since been removed...

as for the Operating Theatre - it was surprisingly not-creepy, just like the rest of the place. it was pitch black though...

i was there 3 days ago and although it really makes you think, it's not at all creepy really.

can't wait to go back!

i totally lied - it was danversfanatic who posted the link. sorry.

just back on-topic, i found this pic from a link on the forum - grim angel i think put it up) of the salvage company taking this light down..seems it was the lobotomy room after all...

http://www.noreast1.co...versinstitution.html

i'm pretty sure that isn't a real baby...

yes. because having a bath is the best thing for that.

...................

ooh! yes please mr motts - wallpaper!

pretty please?

is that lutjens? or in the style of?

have just realised i am now that person who appears thirty times on the main page and makes everyone tut and sigh...

...and i was just about to ask what the hell those were...

ah, the eloquence of the essex graffiti "artist"....