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Padded Room

Padded Room

The shadow in the corner is from me standing in the light from the open door. What looked like a speaker was mounted on the right side, and a mirror was placed up top to make sure the person could be kept an eye on from the observation window.
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There is a similar room, today, in the school where I work. It has a door and an observation window. No one gets tortured in there. Don't anyone get the wrong idea, now.
Wow!
Exactly, Bill. That one is built to specs too. You can see what is happening in the room so if someone tries to hurt themself or they stop breathing or whatever, you can go right in and assist them.
So, wait, is that the first padded room you've actually come across? If so, any idea as to whether thats thanks to patterns of decay (pads = more rottable?) or just because they're not nearly as common as the popular asylum stereotype would have us believe?
Regarding the speaker, I think they played horrible noises & music (Perry Como) to torture the poor soul in the room and they took turns looking at them in the mirror. Am I right Lynne? 8-)
Alex: well no this isn't the first padded room I've come across. I jumped ahead in my sequence of photos to get to my Europe trip online. There is a room at one of the locations on the main page with a large padded room; it had a thick rubber material on all four walls. I guess you could call it an actual "rubber room."

They are pretty rare to come by though in my experience... I only know of about 4 of these types of rooms. Sound proof and / or stain proof seclusion rooms seem to be a more popular solution. Then again, many of the pads in these types of rooms are held up by Velcro or a similar temporary method, so they might have been removed and an explorer would never know. I think I remember this hospital having another set of these green pads laying around outside, and I've seen a dismantled padded wall at another hospital in the states.
Is this like finding the "Holy Grail" of asylums?
A padded room? Not for me... I don't seek anything out in particular, although some pretty neat things have been left in some psych hospitals (straitjackets, ECT machines, brains and organs, etc).
I knew it, its the TIME OUT room.
J-131274,

Ha! Makes me think of when the U.S. tried to force some dictator out of his hiding place by playing loud rock music. 8`-)
oh the endless possibilities of a padded room
Mr. Motts ....there`s a colony in Sussex, not far from Hellingly....it`s now a colony of poncy Londoners living in flats built within the old units lol.........you missed a padded room @ Hellingly........in the smaller building near the entrance to the site........the padding is gone but the floor is a strange domed soft linoleum -like surface........spooky indeed
J-131274 and Lynne,
Now, now, you just KNOW they tormented the poor soul locked in there with the sounds of Yoko Ono. :-D
Yoko Ono...... shudderrrrr!!!
There's no way a patient could reach that mirror, right?
Highly unlikely, but it is made out of polished metal, so cannot crack and be used to hurt oneself or others. The edges of the mirror are sealed with smoothed plastic for a similar reason.
if we can see your shadow in the door, mr. motts, why can't we see your reflection in the mirror?
[He's . . . . . . . he's a vampire. =8-o ]

Or that could be him in the mirror alongside the door using a tripod - hard to say - mebbe with a very tall spider.
Since the room was so dark, the exposure time was for a good 30 seconds or so. I moved out of the doorway while the photo was taken so I am not visible, but my tripod is however :)
So, that's not a tall spider, then? :-(
Lol.
Good photo. It actually looks like the mats that are on the walls of the small gym in my school. Except we don't have mirrors. Or nice speakers. Lol.

I like the vampire idea =)
for some Odd reason I have always wanted to stay in one hahahcall me crazy but they seems intresting!!
They're coming to take me away, haha! They're coming to take me away, ho, ho! ..........
(Lynne, it's OK, I think it's a very tall spider, too....)
They had one in Danvers State to, I believe it was in J ward.
Brains and organs?!?! Oh my....

These walls remind me of my middle school gym class. The gym was padded all the way around exactly like this, only the padding was red (came in handy too!).
makes ya wonder what could have gone on here.
No. It doesn't.
To some people such a place is a refuge, a place of safety. Now go back to the top and read my first comment again.
But running tinto the wall and bouncing off would be a dumb idea even if they are padded, but funny at the same time.
somedays I feel like I am in a room like this
If Lord Motts IS a vampire, which he IS.....
Paddedroompadeedroompaddedroom.
I would high-tail it outta there SO fast after discovering that. The whole concept of insanity scared me half to death, and just think of what's gone on within those walls...
Re: Bill Door first comment. You said people don't get tortured in there now... who knows what went on back when the room was constructed. Stories of abuse and torture might never have surfaced because a) it wasn't considered torture or abuse back then more the a form of treatment and b) many of the patients in that room were disabled and may have been unable to verbalise their concerns, or not have been believed by anyone back then because they had a mental disability. Back then people did not have the understanding or compassion that todays society has for people who suffer from mental disabilitiies.
I find it really sad that these rooms are ever needed... but I guess it is to help keep people safe. This world is a strange place.... Anyway... nice shot! =)
A friend of mine was commited as he was an alchoholic.One day when he thought he was going home,found out he was not,was injected ,put in one of these rooms and lost two days! So much for chill out room!
By the way i am told by staff that the hospital had three padded rooms.
Ah ha ha ha. =D A padded room. My favorite thing about an asylum.
This is an awsome shot. For some reason (and I'm glad to see I'm not the only one) I have wanted to actually see one of those rooms!
If I was stuck in a padded room, because I had a mental illness, the LAST thing I'd want to see is a mirror. If thats all I had to look at for weeks on end, I'd be even more mental then when I came in the room. =/
I have actually been in one.... but not exactly like this. ;) In most large animal veterinary hospitals they have these for surgery , especially designed for horses. When horses come out of anesthesia they can do crazy things to hurt themselves, thrash about and the like, so veterinarians do the surgery in these types of rooms with a hydrolic table in the middle that can can be covered up with padding also and the animal cannot hurt himself upon awakening....
Possibly Lil but there is one very significant difference... These rooms designed for a human do not have any handle on the inside of the door and so the rooms cannot be opened from the inside... these same rooms for horses have a handle on both sides of the door.
I guess it IS kinda cruel to put a handle on the inside of the door of the padded surgery room.
Those poor horses have hooves, and can't possibly open it! (sigh) What asses, whoever designed those doors!

Yeah, Eric I know. and it is sad that rooms of this design also were used for people,
without a way to get out. I was only making an observation with my above post, not being
inconsiderate of the poor patients that had to stay in this room for extended amounts of time.
am i the only one who thinks having a mirror in a padded room might be a slightly stupid idea? considering mirrors are made out of GLASS (among other things...)
*jump*
CRASH!
*slice slice slice*
My stepmums father was in charge of these wards when they were still being used, crazy to think he would be in charge of locking poor souls in these rooms. Have heard some stories, it seems it was mostly for their own good. The patients were forced to wear special "helmets" as they would bang their heads against these walls, and although they are padded it still did some damage. It's horrible to think of some of the people who had been in that small room and what they must have had to endure.

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