North Wales Lunatic Asylum | Denbigh Then And Now

[Applause] the sun set light was fading as by an old church door i pondered on the dear old hymns i'd heard in days of yours welcome to demby asylum today [Music] for over a hundred years the mentally ill were locked away out of sight from society inside vast victorian institutions many of them so large they were almost completely self-sufficient at peak there were over a hundred thousand patients within over 100 mental institutions around the united kingdom denby opened its doors in 1848 and by the mid-20th century it housed 1 500 patients [Music] this was a time when medical care was undergoing a revolution and many patients suffered terribly inside these intimidating buildings [Music] right guys here we go oh is that security outside reckon dragon swing alright [Music] i can hear generator that's my breakup right it's not even high wow look at this place the architecture here is insane we've just heard dogs barking so we have to be quick [Applause] thank you this is what's left of what once was the communal dining hall this old photograph shows it fully furnished with tables and seasonal decorations it's hard now to imagine the hustle and bustle this room would have held almost everything but the central pillars have been lost over time look at that building wow a little bag stop should try and get into the main building see that there looks quite modern lower level because when we done it that's when we got caught as well we were cool on the second level yeah yeah and you started walking around and eventually grabbed us like an hour later yeah that's true man yeah maybe the trees have actually pushed it over mm-hmm pushed it down yeah i love these old tiles with the palin palin peeling lead paint that's awesome that sounded like it came from in the building me let's just get inside which way you're joking [Applause] true so wow look at those windows these would have been different floors of fireplace there fireplace down there drop of death down there what the hell guys we're hearing all sorts of strange noises in here oh yeah wow it's a shame they've cut off all the stairs so you can't get up anymore oh yeah wow i'm amazed that that's still there [Applause] [Music] you still wasn't your skin so this reminds me of it reminds me of like a castle ruin i really like it wow this does it it's a bit like hogwarts and you can imagine all the staircases going up all over the place and all the fireplaces uh that's amazing wow look at it from that view they do not build hospitals like this anymore so okay wow no it's not underground does that strange [Applause] so that's oh yeah building muscles to come out here oh yeah we should try and do some of the buildings and like uh outside [Music] no garden area wow steel gates once segregated the whole asylum up into parts requiring a key on a level waist strap to move around the place freely eventually the gates were removed from the passageways and patients were much less restricted finally given more freedom to ruin the confines of the asylum walls a former worker described the lengthy tiled hallways as endless and we can certainly see why the thing is that it's 100 so hold it as well oh definitely yeah crazy no there she is before we lost her for a second oh yeah here it does still has that proper hospital smell that's crazy just i was like it's weird so many years later that stout smell still lingers these are like proper hospitals yeah definitely in the last decades of the asylums psychiatrists attempted to cure patients some of these procedures were simply barbaric from electrotherapy to lobotomies these were times before science had even began to understand the workings of the brain and people were being treated like test subjects don't normally like buildings when they're decrepit like this but this just adds character to it yeah this was a mad one yeah into a building that was like this i would probably just like walk away but the fact it's like a little town yeah makes it what it is it's not just one building that's completely battered this is multiple buildings look goes downstairs as well that's right the history man it goes downstairs the walls are bleeding [Music] back up look at that guys that's dangerous guys look at these guys if you would like to see us back here at night drop it down in the comments now let us know definitely be a different feeling [Music] absolutely maybe it's got a big metal door on the other side yeah esther is it or is it wood and there's concrete in it wow is incredible you're saying special awesome you wouldn't even know jess was here just just needs to have a couple of beers before she comes out exploring and then she'll be more confident wow trekking this is where they were burning the bodies yeah yeah and then again when they heat would have been in their bodies and hitting their know i would like to climb those silos man i have a bit of a bad foot in the middle of my foot it's like aching yeah [Music] oh wow that is incredible [Music] this is [Music] wow look at that guys what's inside i'll help you all right upper down man um i wonder how high up you can go in this let's go up we will keep going down let's try and go up man wow this place is monumental i mean look at the windows building after building wow i can't help but just look out every window i still got the tiles right guys i tell you what jess needs to be doing some filming so i'm going to pass the camera over to jess and jess is going to be the film of the part of this video oh there he is because the view is so cool can you see a challenge jess is so i'm glad they did used to use it and now you've got this looks awesome sure does it's one of my favorite things about abandoned places actually it's really pv hallways i feel gonna go around that way yeah see if you can find a way around man just trying to find a way out of the fenced-off party [Music] [Music] looks like the old basement rose hips i know that would have been full this asylum like many of us had grown to such a size that it made sense for it to provide for itself with a full working garden and farm the food provided was fresh and there was plenty to go around the patients who were able would contribute to the workload out on the fields in the kitchens and with the laundry we've just been walking back to trying to find a way to chapel and we noticed upside down cross in the door strange heading we're gonna try and see if we can get to this chapel because actually on the outside outside of this site so we're going to go check the chapel then we're going to wrap it up but there's going to be some drone footage either at the start or the end i'm not sure yet but i'm pretty excited to fly around this place just trying to find a way out still and just come across all these mushrooms quite a few in there wow they're everywhere dogs barking from every direction but we're almost at the chapel now so fingers crossed we don't get caught right at the last second looks pretty bored at that chapel didn't it this little thing i'd love to have seen this in action yeah wow wow look at this chapel guys this i've got a funny feeling this is going to be boarded up all the way around we'll see yeah they've bricked it up yeah that's a shame i wonder if you can get in down there oh it's open no way wow that is beautiful nice roof lovely roof wow i made the big mistake of jumping on down on that floor don't do that man wow look at this chapel that's beautiful wow [Music] that's amazing that would work the impetus to close asylums began in the 1960s but large-scale closures did not start until the 1980s denby closed its doors in 1995 and has been left rotting ever since the closing of these institutions was a monumental change for britain and many patients had a chance at a brand new lease of life on the outside this place really was a town of its own and some will say they really did serve as true asylums for those who would have otherwise had nowhere to go others will agree these places are better off put far behind us and forgotten whether they have been renovated bulldozed or simply abandoned the mad houses will always remind us how far things have come guys that is it for demby asylum i can't believe you pulled it off we just bumped into a couple who actually got caught by security on the outside of the grounds we were in there for over an hour and we got away of it but let us know what you think i hope you enjoyed the history in this video it's an amazing place to see a real experience see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Samandjessexplore

Views: 39,652

Keywords: urbex, abandoned, abandoned asylum, abandoned hospital, abandoned wales, abandoned England, morgue, urban exploring, adventure, wales Road trip, Denbigh asylum, Denbigh mental asylum, sam and jess, samandjessexplore, English asylum

Id: EwXDlyecJJk

Length: 35min 56sec (2156 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 12 2020