Holywell Hospital

 12/2011

Visited with Jay and Blober

After battling with 24 hour security over the years, and then forgetting about the place for a while, we were finally in. The x-ray has gone, most of the room doors have been removed, but it was still well worth the effort of exploring. My only regret is not doing it sooner.

There is a lack of explorable asylums, hospitals and NHS faculties at the moment, due to most of the abandoned ones being demolished. Many of the old hospitals are listed buildings, but there seems to be a trend of owners leaving them to fall into a state beyond repair, thus leaving the only option of flattening the old hospital and redeveloping the land entirely. Could Holywell hospital be seen as a success story though? The building is a Grade two listed building and has sold for £275,000 at auction. However, this was in February 2011, and there is no evidence of work taking place on the site as of yet.

History

Lluesty Hospital was built between 1838-40 as a workhouse, for the Union of 14 parishes, by John Welch, architect of St Asaph and Surveyor to the Guardians. It was built by Thomas Hughes of Liverpool and the contracter was Samuel Parry. There may have been alterations in 1869 and it was enlarged to the right in 1902. There were also some modern extensions during it's conversion to hospital use. It has the standard workhouse grid plan with separate courtyards for men and women and transverse and spinal ranges with a linking central octagon. It closed after the Holywell Community Hospital opened in 2008.