UK Denbigh Asylum

Thomas Fulljames designed Denbigh Asylum. Building began in 1844 and was finished in 1848. It was built to hold a maximum of 200 mentally ill patients and was scheduled for closure in the 1960s along with many similar asylums in the UK, which had been deemed unhealthy when treatment of the mentally ill progressed, becoming more humane. However, Denbigh was closed comparatively recently between 1991 and 2002. Now it is decaying at a fast rate. There are stories of it being haunted due to the bad way in which patients were treated and the fact that so many died. The TV series ‘Most Haunted Live’ was filmed there and the producers were criticised by the residents of Denbigh town for the bad name it put on both the town and the hospital. 

The second time I visited the asylum, I decided to sleep in there for a night and, funnily, it was a rather cosy night; myself and three friends all crammed into the room with the pentagrams that ‘Most Haunted Live’ used to film in. It was an interesting experience to sleep in a place that so many people thought was so heavily haunted, often travelling to visit it for this very reason. I actually thought it was peaceful, but I certainly spent a lot of time reflecting.