This is the first part of 3 reports on this visit to Severalls. Lots of photos were taken 🙂 Part 2 and 3 will follow shortly, stay tuned and enjoy…
History of Severalls Lunatic Asylum
Severalls Lunatic Asylum aka The Second Essex County Asylum aka Severalls Hospital located in Colchester, Essex was a psychiatric hospital built in 1910 . Controversial psychiatric experiments/treatments were known to have taken place at Severalls including electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) along with the use of frontal lobotomies. These sorts of treatments peaked in the 1950′s. The hospital began its closure process in the early 1990′s along with many of the other large asylums in the country and a small portion remained open until 1997 to cater for continued treatment of some of the older patients. Alot more on The History and Future of Severalls can be found in the original visit report from October 2012.
Our Visit
My Second visit to Severalls aka Sev’s this time accompanied by Sam ‘The Mule’, Pete Costello, Altdayout & Sssshhhh. Last time we came here I think we managed about an hour an a half inside maybe a little longer before we were captured and led out. This time we did a little better and covered a lot more of the place. Whilst I showed the other guys where the morgue was located I didn’t take any shots of it myself this time around so if you want to see those check out the first report from Severalls back in October 2012. This time around I shot a lot more bay window shots as you will see over the 3 pages of shots. I notice the Squirrels boutique has been moved around a bit, the bed has made its way from the yellow room with the barred windows to the neighbouring blue room. Otherwise, the bits we covered last time seemed relatively similar. Lots of corridor shots as always from Severalls, that’s what she’s. all about. Definitely my favourite of the remaining asylums in the UK. Hopefully won’t be my last visit here.
First up a little gopro footage from the trip:
If you’ve made it this far… thanks for reading / checking out the pictures. Leave me a comment below or hit the like button to let me know you’ve enjoyed the shots and to encourage me to keep posting more 🙂
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My favourites too, those endless hallways, creepy, reminds me of movies where people run for the way out but never seem to reach the end. I agree on the comment that these asylums have something special
Severalls is just one of those places that is so very easy to photograph. Very beautiful and lots of natural decay. I love this old asylum, sadly it will soon be demolished 🙁
PM
Very unsettling images…
There’s something about insane asylums that is very interesting though. Sadly, I don’t believe there is any sort of abandoned insane asylum near me so I don’t see myself trying this out myself anytime soon. Maybe I’ll check if there’s one a few hours away, snag a friend, and go.
Can you get in a lot of trouble for “trespassing” and taking pictures there?
Hi Luke,
Glad the reports on the asylums interest you. They are eerie places to be in sometimes. As for legalities, trespass is a civil offence not criminal so as long as you are sensible dont cause any damage or force entry to anywhere you should be relatively ok.
Regards PM
love the photos, what are the guidelines if you want to go take photos inside
Hi helen… unfortunately there arent any…. strictly without permission only! 😉
PM