Previous photo Kingsley Psychiatric Hospital | Faded Memories Next photo
A Dead Bolted John

A Dead Bolted John

I have never seen a toilet that could be locked and dead bolted from the outside!
Bookmark and Share More info
comments

Please remember that the comments posted here are not the opinions of opacity.us or its affiliates.

it's amazing how an image so simple in composition can sear itself into one's conciouseness so quickly. After seeing this image for htree seconds, I know already I will never forget it.

I only discovered your site last week while searching for pics of Danvers, and have found a new fascination. Your images are striking, at times unnerving, and always thought provoking. Thank you, and cheers!
Yes Mr. Motts has a way with a camera that I have not seen anywhere else. He is a master.

and the comments left can suck in into the pictures even deeper. I also love this site.

Now I wanna see the key for that lock!
Seems dangerous to me, but that's only because my friends (and myself too) love locking each other in horribly small places to torture them... :)
Great shot Motts. Stark, perfect.

I just read that the Queen doesn't like a loo being referred to as a "toilet", she prefers "lavatory" or some such thing. Just a little nonsensicle trivia for you there folks!
*off topic*

jude - according to the british (snob) class system it's vulgar (or "non-u"for non-upper-class") to use words derived from french. so, lavatory or loo not toilet, napkin not serviette.

load of old bollocks if you ask moi.
That is weird, why would a bathroom be locked from the outside?

Was there any reason for this that you can think of Lynne? I'm really interested to know.
probably rip a big one and throw someone in there afterward. The smell would knock them out
Very interesting to see that lock on the outside. Lynne and clue to that?
That IS interesting. Can't think of any reason. It's against just about every building code I can think of. Doesn't make a lot of sense, does it?
Motts, did you look inside? Was it still a toilet? Maybe it was converted to some other use that required a deadbolt.
I've neve seen this either. I wonder if building codes are different in the UK. I wonder if there was a lock on the inside.
Our building regulations aren't so different that we put bolts on the wrong side of doors! The bolt does appear to have been there longer than the Toilets sign. Maybe a previous explorer found it and stuck it on the door?
hmmmn.. in modern hospitals you quite often find that out of hours in the A&E the toilets are locked except for the ones closest to the waiting area. I once asked and got a whole load of reasons from "to give the junkies fewer places to hide" to "so the nightstaff have fewer places to keep an eye one" and things like that.

so maybe this toilet was locked at night or our of hours for whatever reason, and the huge deadbolt was put on as a visual indicator that the room's out of use [to prevent somone waiting patiently for hours for the non-existant occupant to finish!]
Well, jeeze, someone knew something that Lynne didn't! It makes sense though, if you're working with people that aren't..mentally stable, you don't want them hiding in the bathroom. It doesn't sound very safe when put like that.
Maybe it was a ruse to get people to go in but WASN'T really a lavoratory at all. Might just draw some flies!
If you wrote down all the things *I* don't know there wouldn't be any room left on the Internet. :-)
Hello? Is there anybody out there?
lol i thought that lock and handle was a Uzi machine gun for a sec...
Could have been staff toilets too...?
At first I thought it was to discourage the unwanted people from using it, but then you would NOT have the deadbolt because it is easy for them to break trying to get in to use it.

When I volunteered at the local low level psych places the LPN's would need to lock the bathrooms until the staff knew someone would actually be in there (sucidal prevention) and they were always type of lock where you could just see from the position if it was 'locked' or 'unlocked'
The name for a bathroom in the Navy is called "The Head." So would this be a locked head?
i would hate to be locked in there.
small spaces scare me.
I know psychiatric hospitals with toilet doors that don't close... but I've never hear of toilet doors that look from the outside...
creeps me out!
shoulda taken a sledgehammer
Wha-wha-what?
Oddly enough, the door to my bathroom is like that. We put a deadbolt on there so that the cats couldn't open the door and pee on the rugs.
So I've been mis-spelling ' toilet ' all this time??! Actually, I spell it the alternative ' fancy ' way.

I used to have a ' friend ' who had a friend who had a PADLOCK on the OUTSIDE of his apt. room. One day my ' friend ' padlocked the other guy in his room after the guy had been drinking, and he left. He said the guy was " hanging out his window calling for me to come back; and there's no bathroom in that room "

By the way, pictured is a " barrel-bolt "
A master of thought provocation!! These photos continue to delight!
Creepy...Never gonna use a bathroom like that!! NEVER EVER!!!!
Maybe that was the British answer to a seclusion room.
"Suuure....we have a "Restroom" just for special guests like YOU mr health inspector.

"Was the door opened?
Would you like to smell your own feces, cuz you would have to in a dump closet like that.
Somebody captured the Poop Monster & locked him in there
At my school they keep the bathrooms locked, because of vandalisim.
mebe some one fell a sleep in there
I used to work for a psychiatric nursing home and I have seen this one other place. It was used as a restrictive measure for patients that were violent when there was not a special segregated area for the patient. Most places stopped doing this because of the risk to patients being left alone in a locked room, fire, and other factors. It made sense though as they had toilet facilities and such.

Comments pertaining to real location names, methods of entering the property, promotions or advertisements, off-topic discussion and general flaming, as well as those submitted under various aliases are subject to immediate deletion and your ip address being banned from this website. By submitting your comment you agree to these terms. Visit the forum for off-topic and general discussion. To prevent your comment from being removed and to help keep this site uncluttered, please read more about comments on opacity.

Memories and stories from past employees, visitors or patients are gratefully welcomed, they help keep these places alive!

 
Previous photo Kingsley Psychiatric Hospital | Faded Memories Next photo