Main Hall

That was once a beautiful hall. Jeez in the name of renovation. Blech!

Thats not renovation thats just ugly

"in my humble opinion"

Why the hell did they do that?

It was a new uglification project, mebbe.

That's just so ugly. What a gorgeous room it used to be! You can't even tell it is one and the same. How very sad.

truely saddening. It was such a beautiful structure at one time. Why cant they just leave well enough alone.

loved what it looked like before, shame what the remodling did to it. Is that a disco ball I see???

the modifications were all about the heating........... great original pic :o)

I think in the 70's, the world was hypnotized into a coma in which during that time they "re-decorated "or ruined the simple beauty in so many gorgeous Victorian structures. You know, the adding of dropped ceilings over tin ones, hideous brown paneling over plasterwork, etc. This has to be the only explaination...either that or all those drugs during the era.

I wonder whethe anything of the old ceiling could survive beyond the dropped ceiling... or would that sort of construction neccesitate anihilating all of the older decorations before putting in the newer ceiling?

In a word, Depressing.

Oh wow...what architect decided to destroy that beautiful room?

what they did to that hall should be grounds to shoot them in the back of their heads.

That is just a crime!
even the floors! ugh!

Sure hope the Prince of Whales and his Pheonix program can and will restore it to it's former glory!

sorry my brain is not funtioning very wiell right now but the bottom picture is the orginal room right? I would think that the top one was an origial the bottom picture looks so new.

room was gorgeous in the "before" picture. the "after" is just sad.

It'd was the fashion of the time (60's-70's) to modernize rooms in this way. It may seem stupid by today's standards but it wasn't that way then. Odds are it's still under there though in poor shape no doubt.

why would anyone want to change it from what it originally was?

Alex J:

I would bet most if not all of the original ceiling is still there. They would just suspend the new drop ceiling down from the old one. and being there seems to be no damage to the drop ceiling as of yet it would also mean the roof isnt leaking or not very much so the old ceiling probably still looks pretty good.

Did you try to take a peak up into the ceiling mr. Motts to see if it was still there?

it used to be so beautiful....and...now it's a disco floor I guess...*shrug*

Eeeewwwwwww, what have they done :[

They destroyed it by covering it up! It was absolutely majical before its change!!

I can't think of a thing to say that someone hasn't already said. It makes my heart ache to see what's been done to that beautiful room and to hell with cost-efficiency!

MAN, WHAT HAPPEND HERE IS NOT ANYTHING NEW. ELEGANT BUILDINGS JUST LIKE THIS ONE ARE JUST RUIND WITH STUPID, RETARDED ARCHITECTS WHO THINK COVERING UP SOMEONE ELSES BEAUTIFUL ARTWORK IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO. THIS IS ONE REASON WHY I WANT TO BECOME AN ARCHITECT, SO I CAN CREATE STUNNING STRUCTURES LIKE THIS ONE USED TO BE AND RESTORE OLD BUILDINGS EXACTLY LIKE THIS ONE TO HOW THAT ARTIST/ ARCHITECT WANTED HIS PIECE OF ART TO LOOK LIKE. SORRY I GET REALLY FIRED UP WITH IMAGES LIKE THIS ONE! 8D

Yes i would imagine that the plaster work is all still there above all the polystyrene tiles. They probably knocked holes throgh it to suspend the cieling though. peopel once thought victorian architecture was fusty and old fashioned and tried to hide it from view. Nowadays houses wiht original features fetch a premuim cause so many were destroyed in the name of fashion .

Its a freakin' tragedy

Wow, it was so beautiful...now it's just...hideous :-(

I still ache when I see this.
UGH. >:[ But to me the original ceiling looks like it's probally still there. This is NOT the premimum :[ It was though, it was.

I am often filled with disbelief at what some think of as progress. If heating and cooling was the problem then why did they also cover up the columns and change the door frames? Even if they dropped the ceiling they could have left the other details. It would have still been lovely.

"To change
and to change for the better
are two different things."
-- German Proverb

It's almost two different buildings.

Look at the floors... still beautiful under all that dirt.

Compare the two pics and you can see the old still peeking out from the 'renovations'

The Disco Mirror Ball on the ceiling is an interesting addition too !

RattX

For one thing, the original hall pic may be quite old. Granted if it was the case that it was needing to be repaired rather than just remodeled, then there would probably be some sort of problems with the newer ceiling.
It's a shame that the original beauty of the place was covered up, but at least the beautiful hall was still used, rather than torn down or some other action taken. And although the renovations weren't as aesthestically pleasing as the older ornamentation, they probably served the function of the room well at the time.

For those of who who think the renovation was done by some dillusional architect..maybe. More often than not, this is the kind of stuff that happens when an architect is NOT involved.

This is purely discusting, what they have done to this place. Is there any way that we can contact the Prince of Whales and voice our opinion??? And would it count??? Come on People, get behind me here. Give me some support!!!!!!!!!

I know this sledge hammer who could get those pannels out of there in a jiffy.

"uglification" ... ROFL!!! Perfect description.

So for 'therapy' they would bring patients into this hall and show them the picture of what it used to look like. You know, job security... ;o)

They did this kind of 'improvement' to my hospital in 1997. The ceiling, if they did it that way, whenever they did it is probably suspended by thin wires that are attached to hooks screwed into the original woodwork.
We petitioned, and got the hospital president to cease the renovation, and restore it to it's former glory, a simple fix. Just tear down the drop ceiling and fill in the holes, then repaint or relaquer. Still a bloody shame, however.

Tragic. At least they haven't torn the building down yet, but still... ...shoddy renovations are typically why these great buildings end up being abandoned in the first place. Tragic...

=(

If I could, I would bounce that stupid mirror ball though the tiles so I could clear an opening to the ceiling.

Renovation, only to fall to ruins. Gotta love humanity.

I shon my dads 1,000,000 candle watt torch on this glitter ball and it reflected all the colours all over the room, that was quite strange, a disco without music! it would be pretty creepy to see the old layout with the state its in now, but old buildings like this are pretty fascinating.
Also all 12 of us heard strange sounds that night, its definately haunted and in the block with all the broken sinks alot of orbs have shown up on the video we took.

I think people should be taken on tours of this place, as they're going to enter it anyway, and its better to keep control over them rather than stumbling around a place with pure holes in the floors, and loose ceilings.

thats ugly but hey everything looks like that nowdays. I just wonder how the old original hall would have been on your foto,it was a beautiful room ones.

i went in there, the floor boards arnt safe my mate nearly fell through didnt fancy going onto the stage, it looked all rotted!! didnt fancy breaking a leg!!

sadly some moorons have had a fire in the middle of the hall now and burnt a big hole in it and the stage also ahs got a huge hole in the midle. but a great room to find though!

Renovation + Deterioration = SUCKS!

OMG That is the worst reno I've ever seen in my life, But I do understand why they would have to lower the ceiling b/c of heating costs..etc etc

This shot is heartbreakingly sad. This building was absolutely beautiful before they renovated it with plaster, drop ceilings, and cheap pegboard. This should be a national monument, not a decaying wreck.

Why in the world would they change that? The original was so lovely! It makes me sad...

what a shame!! I've been in there and you get a really nice feeling of being in there. like there was a place where they where actually happy. now the front of the stage has been totally burnt and alot of the floor boards have been pulled up. Truely sad!! xx

Hopefully the drop ceilings and covers were to protect history?

the cellin is there still under dropped cellin

im now watching most haunted and there in the main hall

i was in there last night at most haunted live, so scary!!

such a beautiful building......WHY on earth have they DESTROYED it? so,so sad :(

I remember visitting this beautiful building in 1984 as my father was doing a couse in psychology. It was an impressive building then, and still now (I drove upto the building last year to see if it was still standing after I heard rumours it was going to be levelled to make room for new housing). Even in it's dillapidated state, it's still an elegantly impressive building. A friend of the family came with me to reminisce, as they were a patient here in the early 1970's in one of the wings called Afallon. I'm watching Most haunted this evening. I hope Prince Charles' Phoenix charity ca do something to save and preserve this precious Welsh heritage building.

Fantastic pix!

it wes a vary nime room love the diso ball

This hall sadly was burned down November 2008. Some kids allegedly set fire to the floor in there. Very sad. I was hoping to shoot a horror movie there but can't be allowed in since the fire.

Ah yes, the brutalist 70's renovations strike again.

The Seattle train station got abused this way. Real nasty, especially compared to Portland's train station.
Way off topic & like a totally different continent, but I'm still appalled at how global the dropped ceillings are.
Plus, I figure no one is reading this far down on the list.

Hi mom!

This makes me want to cry. Beauty destroyed in the name of utility. Soon we will all be living in an Apple-styled world.

kill me now. :(

all credit for this hellacious renovation goes to the dreadful interior taste of the 1970's. destroying simple beauty, in the sake of saving money. and wtf, disco ball?!

It was common practice in the 70's to "cover up" things rather than remove or remodel. My house was done like that in the 70's, brown panneling over nice plaster walls, and that god awful orange shag rug over beautiful hardwood floors. What in gods name were they thinking?

Used to be a great room then they put some odd thing up then it burnt down :(

NOOOO! WHY would they renovate that beautiful theater? Makes me ill.

You guys think the renovation is bad?!?!

Well, someone went and burnt the hall down!!
There is also a motor museum near the asylum, someone set that on fire too...

However, the disco ball still exists :P

This has been demolished. The current owners are widely implicated, though not yet charged, with having someone commit Arson in an effort to get rid of the Bats that lived there, and prevented demolition/Renovation. This didn't work, they have just moved into another part of the building. You can hear them, as I did when I was there a few weeks ago. It is in a very sorry state indeed these days, so these pictures are a nice reminder of how it was.

The original hall looks amazing. You could just imagine all those dances etc going on.

Unfortunately the hall is no more... as with so many of the 'protected' building s here in the UK... they mystyeriously get set alight and therefore have to be pulled down rather than spending money to repair them and renovate! A great shame... and a too common story!

Thats sad. Our school used to be very ornate like that and they went through it and destroyed it the same way with the dropped ceilings and putting cheap paneling up covering everything nice looking underneath.

My mummy and daddy owned the hall in its day it was buitifull then it was sold and went to be a hospital and now it is a diaster wish it was still the same