Scattered thoughts

Yesterday benc, bethanthepurple, 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.

Cane Hill MSU is situated very close to where I used to live in Coulsdon with no1typo and red_pill. I was, and still am aware that it's there and open and I know that there used to be a far larger complex open there because you can see the Water Tower of this complex for miles away, including the hill that we three lived on. I knew that this complex had been closed in the late 80s/early 90s and that it has become a frequent target for arson and vandalism, in one case requiring more than 40 Fire Engines and 6 hours (notable for cutting power to a transmitter on top of the water tower and stopping some poor souls from recieving BBC2 for a time) to extinguish the inferno released by some mindless idiots that I'm almost certain I knew through my estate or school.

Anyway, yesterday, after some weird link following I found a history of Cane Hill Hospital as it was until 1992 (when the main site was closed). It turns out it was built in 1882 and is the reason that there is so much green space around Coulsdon - large amounts were granted in perpetuity because of the Hospital. It was, at its peak, a 2,500 bed Mental Hospital and is on a massive site. It has housed the relatives of many celebrities, including the mother of Charlie Chaplin, the half-brother of Michael Caine, and the brother of David Bowie (who committed suicide on the tracks at Coulsdon South station). I didn't realise how much of it the little fuckers had destroyed with fire or how beautiful the chapel there is.

I've lived so close to this place and I had no idea about its history, size or how it really looked.

Well now I've done some exploring and come up with a number of links:

* Report from the guys at the 28 days later forum about their expedition inside Cane Hill
* Simon Cornwell's absolutely amazing webpage on Cane Hill, lots of pictures and more, including details of the history of the place and essays. Best of the lot.
* From Abandoned Britain, lots and lots of pictures! (Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6, Page 7, Page 8, Page 9,Page 10, Page 11, Page 12, Page 13, Page 14).
* From two lads at subculture.org.uk, pictures and narrative. Based on a picture from a bedroom window I suspect I know where they live ;)
* Some excellent pictures with helpful narrative from nobodythere.co.uk (click on the envelopes!)
* A video at sub-urban.com
* A couple of pictures here
* Some really cool pics with a second page
* An offering from urbandesertion. One of the best of the lot (pictures here)
* Mechanised's page - features pictures interspersed with comments about the building itself and how well preserved (or otherwise) they are! I particularly loved the picture of the slippers.
* Ben Charlton's pictures of the outside of several buildings, though only those which boarder the public footpath 744 which runs round the southern perimiter of the site.

Have a look at the pictures - in some there are still syringes and drugs, beds, chairs, books, magazines, pictures, clothes, equipment (including an ECT machine) and a piano that were never removed. It's not even a case of "will the last one out please turn off the lights" - it's almost like the last person out didn't realise they were last.

Absolutely amazing.

[EDIT 26th August 2008] I've just done some tidying up, removing links that are now dead and updating others where things have moved. I have also replicated the list over at http://canehill.co.uk. Please comment here or email me if you have a link with pictures/a history that you want me to add, or anything about Cane Hill that you might want to host there. I'm happy to consider hosting most content about Cane Hill for free, so contact me if there is anything you want to go up.