West Park Asylum, Epsom, March 2010

[Dubbednavigator]

Chances are you have heard something about West park asylum. When it was still around it was an Urban Explorers playground. Everything was left in situ, security were interesting to say the least, and access wasnt difficult. Awesome.

This trip was organised after a 28DL wiltshire meet when a fellow explorer and i met a local to the area who agreed to give us a tour of the place. Fantastic!

We started off by meeting Prof Frink and his son in a local park next door to the asylum where we camped for the evening, it was here i glimpsed the water tower for the first time and it really got my hyped up. This trip we would unfortunately fail to access the tower, it was only when demo was in full swing that i managed to defeat it

There are quite literally a tonne and a half of generic pictures on the web from WP, i did try to do a variation

One thing i noticed about this asylum was that natural decay was at its peak, however on the different level to Severalls as everything had been emptied prior so there was very little that could decay. The first 2 shots show what i mean

West park was certainly one of my best achievements to date photography wise


This asylum for me did not convey the sense of size that Severalls did. Im not sure if it was the lack of corridors becuase it did have them. Possibly because they didnt feel as enclosing - but it was massive. What it didnt miss however was that feeling of absolute isolation from normality, almost like a premature care home


As mentioned before, the water tower has always been the most prominent feature of an asylum. A very valuable tool in keeping your sense of direction. Some were prettier than others - this wasnt so grand i didnt think and gave a very restricting view at the top which was disappointing


Next are a set of the 2 biggest "tourist" attractions of the site - the Crèche and one of the day rooms
Crèche


Day room - very accomodating for lunch i might add


The biggest one for me was the accupational therapy room. Disturbing to say the least seeing what patients had written on the walls


This visit was near on 2 years ago now, and most of the place is now long gone, and with it - the entire epsom cluster. Another part of our history turned into a housing estate.

[MJS]

Some good shots there

[KingElvis]

West Park was great, makes me sad to see it again.

Nice shots.