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Heaven and Hell

Heaven and Hell

A corridor in the female ward, here's a vintage shot of either the same or similar hallway (originally posted on ukasylums.org.uk):

Womens Ward Corridor
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That is fantastic! Look at those decorations! Must have been beautiful back in the day!
Sian
Thu 12-14-2006
Wow, just amazing to see the active photo next to the inactive. I love the way the lights shine out into the hallway in the background in your shot.
desmet
Thu 12-14-2006
WOW, THE OLD PHOTO, ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE A HOME, ITS REALLY BEAUTIFUL. ITS SAD TO SEE BOTH PHOTOS NEXT TO EACHOTHER.
JAVA
Thu 12-14-2006
Wow...just wow.

Amazing what time will do.
Barbara
Thu 12-14-2006
So, Motts, which one's supposed to be heaven, and which one's supposed to be hell?
GirlJaye
Thu 12-14-2006
I think the Christmas decorations in hell sure are pretty...
GirlJaye
Thu 12-14-2006
Well you know me...... I LOVE before/afters so thank you for this one, Motts!
Jude
Thu 12-14-2006
I was in love with the new shot before I saw that there was an older shot. This is superb!
Lynne
Fri 12-15-2006
look at how they boarded up that beautiful window in the more modern shot, why do they always have to screw everything up and make it generic and ugly??!!
Mona Lisa
Fri 12-15-2006
Now THAT is bloody COOL!
Cyber
Fri 12-15-2006
WOW, I love it when you slip in before in afters Motts. It's always so amazing to see the places once full of life.
Kadee
Fri 12-15-2006
Wow!!! That bottom picture is STUNNING!! And the way it looks now is even still, very, very pretty. GORGEOUS !!!
Chrissie
Fri 12-15-2006
By the way, after sitting here forever studying these two pictures, I do believe it is the same hallway motts. Though somethings are altered, if you look closesly at the details, its just about identical! Amazing!
Chrissie
Fri 12-15-2006
Id wager that it is the same...and that really puts insto perspective how refurbishment ruins such places. as stunning as Motts' pic is, imagine it with those skirting boards and windows. modernisation folks...its so much plainer.
Tommeh!!!
Fri 12-15-2006
I named this 'Heaven and Hell' before I found the historic photo... the light coming from above and the dark hallway beyond were a contrast that seemed fitting for the title.
Motts
Fri 12-15-2006
I think it is the same room. Why do I find the old picture so creepy?
Still, really cool. Any idea around what year the old photo was taken Motts?
Long Island Irish
Fri 12-15-2006
looks like the hallway in the movie Phantasm. Creepy old picture. Gives me the creeps!
Joe
Sat 12-16-2006
Victorian beauty and the generic flat paint of the modern age. It had a homey look back in the day.
Little Dora
Sat 12-16-2006
Gone are the beautiful wall sconces and and chair rail. Note the electrical wiring that has been added in later years.
Little Dora
Sat 12-16-2006
It's like those nurses are gonna cross the lights of those abandoned corridors any minute...
The painting was prettier before ;-)
Lia
Sat 12-16-2006
nice title and is so fitting for this photo. love the shadow in between each door and then the light from the skylights above. looks like someone could be waiting behind the shadows to grab you and never let you go.
rtotten
Sun 12-17-2006
Excellent picture! The two pictures really made me feel like I've step back into time.

Long Island Irish wrote:
"Any idea around what year the old photo was taken Motts?"

Hi, Irish, if you don't mind my volunteering an answer... By the looks of the nurses' uniforms, I would say it looks, to me, to be between 1890 and 1910.

I absolutely love these two pictures!
Michele
Sun 12-17-2006
"YOU PLAYED A GOOD GAME BOY!!!!!"
A.S.V.
Wed 12-20-2006
Whilst I appreciate that you "credit" my site as the source of these images, and they are indeed quite evocative. It might have nice to have been asked in the first place. Still, you have given due credit and the comments are very interesting. Still - it would have been nice . . . Thanks.
Gordon
Fri 01-05-2007
those nurses look like they're kind of in the way.
Marshal Banana
Fri 01-05-2007
Great "then and now" shots. I love those comparison pictures.
Nance
Sat 01-06-2007
Hey Gordon, Take a powder!
Debi G from Oz
Sun 01-07-2007
Debi G - I am taking the powders - but they give me gas!
Gordon - UK
Mon 01-08-2007
i have to agree, while the old picture is beautiful it tends to make me think of the twins in the shining. something about the feeling it produces. awesome as usual!
kaycebane
Mon 01-15-2007
Did anyone notice that the pictures are hung by wires? Over there, they use a hanging rail instead of putting holes in the walls.
Grifspop
Sat 01-20-2007
If some only see fit to mock, please accept my gratitude, Gordon-UK, for having available the original picture in the first place. Courtesy costs nothing - to have asked first would simply have been polite, I have known sites to be shut down after "taking" images without asking first. Motts is no plagarist from what I have seen ! I love Mott's images and must add that seeing the original picture alongside the modern one is a rare treat and really sets this piece off - a rare glimpse of how it once must have been, how very evocative ! Thank you Motts - and Gordon.
MG
Thu 02-01-2007
It's cool MG. Motts is alright!!
Gordon - UK
Tue 02-06-2007
I apologized to Gordon for forgetting to send
the email and everything is well; thanks again for letting me continue to post the old photo!
Motts
Tue 02-06-2007
Smashing - keep up the good work, the pair of you !

I only wish there were places like that near me.
Trouble is, round here, anywhere that closes down is either demolished (sometimes BEFORE planning/demolition permission even) to make way for new homes.
Or - quickly converted into (usually expensive) flats.
So keep the pictures coming please !
MG
Thu 02-08-2007
wounder wer that plant came from?
mee
Wed 02-28-2007
The old photo looks like it was took around christmas time. and it looks superb wish i could have seen it in the height of its day.
vikki
Fri 03-16-2007
I love seeing what has become of the place compared to the old photo. Wonderful.
Cheryl
Thu 03-22-2007
Such detailed attention when then decay of modernism kills and rots away the ornateness of the 19th century. Thus is the East side of Saginaw, MI as well.
C-Note
Wed 04-11-2007
The decorations at the bottom of the arch have been removed.

I guess they were too easy for someone to knock over.

The dado rails have also gone in time.
Richard Davies
Fri 05-04-2007
Perfect title Motts.
Jason
Wed 05-16-2007
Looks like the whole glass doorway was removed as well as the screens above the arch. -- many hospitals lost their character in favor of cleanliness -- Great photos
designvector
Sat 05-26-2007
of course theres a more mundane explanation for the boarding up of windows.in the early pic the patients would be locked in cells or very very heavily sedated, and there would be a high ratio of staff to patients, however, as sedatives developed, patients were more free to wander the hospital at will, and , well, its still a mental hospital, and glass isnt exactly a friendly material. also its not very private if the other side is not something that should be public, like a bathroom entrance or toilet for example.

and yes, that is the same shot!!
johnr
Fri 06-08-2007
ive just realised where this is, this is taken on ward 3, and the entrance is to the langdale unit, the lancashire interim secure unit, where dangerous mentally ill patients were sectioned to for their own and the publics protection. hence the removal of the glass and any way of seeing in. in all my time there, i never once saw these doors open.
johnr
Fri 06-08-2007
You are so right Johnr. Glass is a no-no in some mental hospitals. I was commited into a state hospital in 2006, in the female observation unit, and the nurses' station was protected by plexiglass, and one of the heavier females became psychotic and took her fist and rammed that glass so hard it shattered the plexiglass. Wnen they repaired it, they placed wire meshing somehow between the panes of the plexiglass (error in spelling?)
Starlight
Mon 07-30-2007
wow those decorations are wick we should decorite hostpitals like that at xmas round us
megan
Fri 10-05-2007
I think that they are just similer hallways. Look at the difference in the decorations on the wall, how in the oldershot, the brown wood winds back, but in Motts' shot, it's just a single line that doesn't wind back.... They are amazing shots though
Brianna
Tue 10-09-2007
DEFINATLY NOT THR SAME ROOM THERE ARE WAY TOO MANY DIFFRENCES. THE WINDOWS FOR ONE.
DONNA
Sun 11-18-2007
i love to be able to compare, before and after.
loooooooooooooooooooove!!!!!! it
lavender whisper
Thu 11-29-2007
I made this gif out of two photos above - even tho they're not the same, but cool to view here:
http://e.photos.cx/Bef...ardsCorridor-c8b.gif

Enjoy.
Hallucinator
Sun 01-06-2008
Jeebers, Hallucinator, you have a real talent for this. Both of your gifs are fabulous - thanks!
Lynne
Sun 01-06-2008
Lynne, you're welcome! I plan to do more as I surf thru this long list of links here.
Hallucinator
Wed 01-09-2008
Thumbs up on the before and after shots. I love seeing people in the shots before and the abandonment afterwords!
paul
Sun 01-27-2008
How amazing did it look durning the day and now look at it
Katie
Wed 02-06-2008
Is that plant real or artifice?
Guitorman
Fri 03-07-2008
the plant has really grown!
joolz.uk
Fri 07-25-2008
It isnt the same hallwayy,
if you loook, the walls are different
and above the walls,
The like windows are different,

x
Nadine;
Tue 12-16-2008
What a perfect title for this shot!
Kathy W.
Sat 11-07-2009
im a whittingham had no clue about all this stuff with my last name . lol
ashley whittinham
Mon 08-23-2010
Martha Stewart : Asylums
Pepper Q
Tue 01-04-2011
Hi johnr, good call but could it not be ward 4 leading to 5's corridor?
MickC
Wed 01-19-2011

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