Pool Park Asylum - Ruthin, North Wales... |
The front of the Grade II listed Pool Park Asylum
building in August 2011... |
Around the back - the seriously overgrown rhododendrons and deciduous
trees effectively shield access... |
A bizarre single story polygonal building attached to the kitchen
block... |
Sky line and rooftops... |
Within the kitchens - the hotplate range and prep tables... |
Oven... |
Boiler... |
Now
that's what I call a Magi-Mix!!! |
The
serving hatch... |
Intercom/telephone in the kitchen servery... |
Was Mr. Davies the former night porter? |
Pot
washing range... |
Dining room? |
Is this for real or did it end up here by accident? |
Ground floor - dormitory, ward or day room? |
Female ablutions block... |
Water damage is bad in the kitchen wing... |
First floor view across the kitchen wing roof... |
Serious water ingress has made some upper floor areas very unsafe... |
First floor bathroom... |
Painted wooden wall panelling... |
Urinals adjacent to a male ward or dormitory area... |
A side corridor leads back to the main first floor corridor, again with
beautiful wooden panelling "desecrated" with cream gloss... |
Just one of many fireplaces on the first floor... |
A view from front to back of the house... |
"The Chair"... |
This highly photogenic chair appears to move
randomly around the house depending on which forum you happen to be
looking at... |
Art or simple pornography? You decide... |
The
wood panelling on the second floor walls is original... |
Previous pictures taken as recently as the beginning
of this year (2011) show this second floor corridor in a largely undamaged
state but only 7 months on it is already through in holes and very spongy
under foot elsewhere... |
Wires linked bell pulls in the bedrooms with a central signalling board
in many old Victorian houses. Here bell pull wires can be seen running
down the wall and over their pulleys to make the right angle under the
floor boards... |
TJ... |
The second floor bedrooms have quite low ceilings. I imagine these were
servants quarters in the time the house was built... |
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Formerly part of the estate, these fields now appear to be part of the
adjacent farm... |
I
wonder what has run down inside this vent to cause such a mess? |
Rafter/eves access from a second floor bedroom... |
Ornamental spire on the roof... |
I
wonder what this was all about? |
View through the fire escape down towards the adjacent farm buildings,
the asylum boiler house chimney is visible to the right... |
Across the roofs... |
Ornate cast iron fire basket in a second floor bedroom... |
What must this have looked like once? |
A narrow stairwell leads up to the roof... |
The water tanks are built on the roof within a small wooden hut... |
Built in wardrobe Victorian style... |
That is one serious mushroom! |
Back down on the first floor main corridor again... |
The ornate, oak master staircase, now sadly depleted... |
One
of the few remaining carved wooden panels on the staircase... |
Carved oak balustrades turn the corner.... |
From the side... |
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From the grand entrance hall... |
Inside the front door... |
More evidence of the removal of the original decoration... |
Peeling magnificence... |
The radiators either side of the door in this room
have fans built in to push the hot air out of the units... |
Asylums always seem to have a concert hall no matter
how small the asylum is.. |
This was originally a drugs cabinet... |
Old beds and chairs down in the cellars... |
Cellar store room... |
...and another... |
Staff meal bills discarded in the cellars... |
Ventilation of the cellars to the outside air... |
The
cellar steps... |
Some form of alarm panel... |
"there's a future for you in the fire escape trade... |
"...come up to town" !!! |
The back of the building is badly over grown... |
Mysterious steps disappear into the dense rhododendron jungle! |
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The side of the building furthest from the kitchens... |
Skyline and rooftops - a variation on a theme! |
It's a crying shame to see this building dieing by inches... |
Thanks for looking! | ||
...and finally, one last view before we go... |