lizziec | Cane Hill Hospital

Yesterday

benc,

red_pill and I went up to Cane Hill Hospital (as written about before here). We decided we wanted to walk on the public footpath (in green) around the old place and take some pictures. It was a nice day, we were in the mood for a walk and we thought this would be cool.

We got up there and stood taking a few pictures of the main entrance from the footpath when a security guy in a white van came up, got out and came round the fence. He ignored

red_pill and

benc (and also

bethanthepurple who was ignoring him and being non confrontational and cool) and went for me (young, female, short...) and started to be very confrontational with me, telling us that we would have to leave immediately, that he would escort us from the premises. I told him (seeing as he was only talking to me) that it was a nice day, we were going for a walk along the footpath and that we would walk to the end and back again. He told us that he was the boss and we were going to be escorted off or he would call the police. Eventually he said we could walk to Portnalls Road (the other end of the public footpath) and he'd meet us there.

We got there, he yelled at us a bit more and we walked back the way we'd come like we'd always intended to. When we got back to the point he'd originally met us at he was there again, with a mate in a car painted like a police car, which followed us all the way down the road.

I was (and still am) to some extent absolutely furious at being accused of something I had no intention of doing and being made to feel like a criminal for doing nothing wrong. What a dick.

He was employed by Defense Security Services (UK) Ltd, and their contact number is 020 8640 3000.

Pictures are here (note

red_pill doing his insane thing -

).

An account by

benc is here and here.

An account by

bethanthepurple is here (friends only) and one by

red_pill is here.

A video I made about yesterday's goings on at Cane Hill, with sound (yay Queen!) OOH! And an avi version. JOY!

Edit, 22nd Jan 2008: A YouTube version!

If you visit, make sure you stick to the footpath and stand your ground if security start questioning you. I would also suggest phoning the police and reporting the harassment should it continue. I wish we had. I also reccommend getting their SIA identification so you can report them later.