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The closure of Whitchurch Hospital was certainly no secret, locally it had been covered by Wales Online and Nationally by the BBC. Tours were being offered, documentaries filmed but everybody missed what mattered the most, the patients stories.
The founder of Urbex Photography, Shaun, was suffering from PTSD, Anxiety and Depression at the time of visiting this former mental asylum, he had attempted to take his own life on several occasions and on the May 31st 2016, overdosed whilst inside. Shaun found support by being inside abandoned buildings and discovering the stories that were trapped within the walls.
The Urbex Photography team began photographing Whitchurch Hospital prior to all of the patients leaving and entered the buildings as the last patient was transferred to their new home at the nearby Llandough Hospital.
Come with us as we take you on a tour of Whitchurch Mental Hospital.
Whitchurch Hospital…
Visit Date: April 2016
The Urbex Photography team spent a considerable amount of time within the buildings, taking the time to explore and document every aspect prior to the site becoming heavily vandalised and eventually demolished. In total, we took close to 50,000 photographs, heard from 17 past patients, 3 current patients, 16 members of nursing staff, 3 doctors and many local residents.
Exploring Whitchurch Hospital was no easy task. The hospital had locks on every door, windows couldn’t be opened more than an inch or two, cameras were everywhere and then there was the security team who were determined to find us each and every time, although they never did.
Our very first visit was while the hospital was still a live working facility, we walked around the grounds that appeared to be open to the public as we made our way to a ward shut off from the rest of the building, a ward that had been disused for many years.
After climbing through bushes and half way up the building, we entered the long abandoned ward through a broken window boarding, unsure what or who to expect, we watched every step that we took.
West 5/5a was abandoned more than 30 years ago after it was decided that they were no longer suitable for the current requirements. The doors closed and the locks were bolted for the very last time.
Over the years though, damp has hit this section of the hospital badly and floors are incredibly unsafe which was experienced when South Wales Police were searching the building for a missing person, but ended up discovering a large cannabis factory!
During the search, a South Wales Police officer unfortunately fell through the floor resulting in several months off work and months of physio as a result.
As we walked around the lower floor of this ward, it was amazing to see some of the original features still in place such as the doors, locks and staff cupboards. It was very obvious that the floors were just waiting to crumble though as while we were walking down a corridor, the floor gave way beneath us.
It’s not particularly clear why this particular ward could not be used over the years though as in reality, it looked very similar to every other ward within Whitchurch Hospital. The Health Authority were not forthcoming with that information after our research team approached them, instead they cited security concerns over us asking questions regarding the layout and usage.
Whitchurch Hospital has been known by many names but it started life as the Cardiff City Asylum, costing £350.000.00 to build. It officially opened its doors on April 15th 1908.
The main hospital building covered 5 acres and was designed to accommodate 750 patients across 10 wards, 5 each for men and women.
Throughout its life, it was used as a military hospital in both World War I and II where the facility was then called the Welsh Metropolitan War Hospital. During World War II, it became the largest emergency services hospital in South Wales, treating British, US Army and German personnel although 200 beds were retained for civilian use.
On July 5th 1948, the hospital was taken over by the Ministry of Health as the NHS
came into existence. It continued to be used through to the mid-
In November 2010, the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board decided that it was preferable to centralise all adult mental health care services at Llandough Hospital. Plans for a residential development of 150 houses and 180 flats on the Whitchurch Hospital site had first been raised in 1996 and provisionally agreed in 2001. The permission was renewed in February 2016 for a further 4 years.
As already mentioned, we spent a lot of time exploring Whitchurch Hospital. Each ward had a different entry method, each ward had a different security system, camera placements, alarms. There was no easy way during the early stages of the hospital closing to simply just walk around. Each day we returned armed with information about how to bypass locks, cameras and of course the security team hunting to find us.
One day where we had planned to take some external photographs only, led to us gaining entry through an open door and walking straight into the Crisis Assessment Ward, a ward still full of equipment and stark reminders that this ward would have seen people with significant issues within their lives.
Since the closure of Whitchurch Hospital, metal thefts have been an almost daily incident. During an interview with a security officer that didn’t want to be identified, we were told that a recent incident including 2 males pulling a machete and a crowbar out on him in order to escape after being caught.
Thankfully, security are fairly on the ball with people trespassing at the site which is important because during one of our visits, we happened to stumble across thousands of patient records left on site. These records include both past and current patients.
Despite raising this directly with the Health Board, as always they were more interested in threatening our team with legal action rather than securing these highly confidential medical records.
Considering Whitchurch Hospital had only recently closed when we started visiting and photographing the site, the conditions were extremely alarming. Damp was hitting the building hard and we don’t believe this has only just set in, meaning that patients were forced to reside in these conditions. Pealing paint everywhere, bedrooms had a strong smell of urine and the smell of last years meals lingered within the air.
We would sit on wards for hours, just reflecting on what patients would have been doing, what they would have experienced. You could hear every single noise, everything echoed down the long and winding corridors. Even when we knew where security were, when we knew that we were the only people inside the building we could still hear human made bangs, voices and other unexplainable noises, the noises that put a shiver down your spine.
When we spoke to past patients, it was clear that this was normal. Patients told us how doors would slam closed, there would be banging noises without any reason and lights would go on and off randomly.
Whitchurch Hospital is full of patient memories, they’re written onto the walls, on paper left in comment boxes and they are retained in the walls that once houses them.
It has been a pleasure to explore Whitchurch Hospital, it’s been an absolute privilege to speak to those that once lived and worked here and to the Cardiff and Vale Health Bard, we are disgusted to see how you’ve left patient records behind.
Our project has not finished here, we will be revisiting throughout the years to come.
In 2019, we returned after receiving an alert that an arson attempt had been made. In reality, it was a small contained fire but the building has suffered a significant amount of damage and vandalism over the past few years.
The hospital site now has private security, a ring of steel around it and free roaming guard dogs. Not even that can stop us though.
You can see all of our images from this location within the gallery below. All of our images are available to purchase in both printed and digital format, for more information, please contact us.
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All photographs and other media are owned by Beyond The Lens Photography
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Beyond The Lens Photography does not condone or encourage trespassing, breaking criminal law or unsafe behaviour. We will not be held responsible for any injuries or deaths that may occur as a result of imitating our work. We will not be held responsible for any damage caused by another person to an unsecured property we have visited, photographed and reported.
No criminal laws are broken by Beyond The Lens Photography. We do not force entry into buildings nor cause any damage.