Abandoned buildings

Urban-exploration is the sport of venturing into derelict buildings and structures. I have noticed that hospitals and medical facilities tend to leave behind a plethora of tables, equipment, and supplies. For those of you who strive for a realistic environment, this is the next best thing to having access to a funcitoning facility. The easier buildings to infiltrate tend to be the older ones, dilapidated and grimy. More recently decomissioned buildings usually have electricity still and are essentially an empty hospital, but they also tend to have security. Food for thought.

I've always loved to explore abandoned buildings, you never really know what you might find. I remember seeing a site once about an abandoned mental asylum in NJ that was fascinating.

As my primary fantasy takes place in an old hospital/clinic setting the idea of coming across an abandoned hospital site..containing tables, etc. is a very attractive one. What a place to play!

When I was a teen, a large Convent closed and was left abandoned. Only a small portion was the Nun's residence, the majority was a home for orphans and partly a hospital/long term care for the insane. There wasn't anything erotic or even clinical about the place, it was cold and dirty. It was an enormous building with six floors that were great to explore and the basement had tunnels that ran off to the mechanical and laundry out-buildings, so there were multiple exits if Security ever did come around. It was fun to scare friends after dark on a full moon as we said the ghost of old Mother Superior roamed the halls. It sat abandoned for over 20 years until some homeless person started a fire to keep warm and burned it to the ground, only then did anyone care that a significant historic building had been lost.

I started at a young age when the hospital in Napa calf was closed in the mid 60's . Now in my old age I enjoy finding ghost town's in Calif. and Nv. that have'nt been gone through by people that rip things off or just destroy it . Like the Town of Oling House neer Wadsworth Nv. First B.L.M. bulldozed part then a new mining co. came in and knocked more bilding's down . A good place is the town of Turntable on the old Quincy LaPort road , There is a house of negotiable affection and a bar . Some windows still in place . If you are the adventure's type try the town of Devils Thumb off Deadwood road near Forresthill Ca. You need climbing ropes and some nerve to get there but nobodies stole anything and the furniture and property is untouched . It send's chill's down you're back as it look's like they left a week or so ago

The son of a friend of ours who was about 20, in college at the time, was exploring an abandoned building, and he got arrested with a number of charges.

It cost his parents many thousands of dollars in legal fees to get him found guilty of a lesser charge on a plea. Now, he has a record.

This might have been a fun thing to do in years past, but it isn't a good idea now.

Must have been in a urban area , I usually work mining claims in places like Tahoe Nat. forrest Ca. or the Stilwater Mountain's in Nv. Also Plumas Nat forest Ca. Old mining claim's can be interesting but dangerous . You can also go to Bodi Ca. but if you touch any thing there the park rangers will write you up . The places I like the most are ghost towns that no one else seems to know about . The town called Spring valley near Lovelock Nv. all that is left is apricot trees . There is also some very scary looking mine shaft's . Above the town site are 15 or so chininess tunnel's where I have found tool's and coin's . If you join a prospecting or metal detecting club it seams that every one has a place they think is the best . If there is a fence or a no trespassing sign then You Must Stay Out .

I think they have theese buildings like hospitals still up because you cant delete paitent files in the uk for like 20 years , am i right? im not sure

To bad you live in England , Should you come to the western U.S I can point you in the direction of sevral ghost town's That haven't been looted . Don't take any thing except pictures and leave nothing but foot print's ...

[quote author=wootwootuk link=topic=56424.msg410162#msg410162 date=1325618054]

i think they have theese buildings like hospitals still up because you cant delete paitent files in the uk for like 20 years , am i right? im not sure

[/quote]

I don't think thats the reason wootwootuk. Patients records from closed down hospitals are kept by the Primary Care Trust (PCT) for the area. But I think they are 'closed' for inspection for a period - possibly 50 years. I know I looked mine up once from the former Biddulph Grange Orthopaedic Hospital - now a National Trust garden property.

Former patients though should be able to look up their own records anytime, under the Freedom of Information Act, possibly on payment of a fee

Probably the reason the PCT often doesn't sell off redundant hospital buildings is because of inertia - can't be arsed in other words, or maybe waiting for land/property prices to rise.

If you've ever seen the "investigational documentary" Cropsey (it's available on Netflix), you'll never want to play in a decommissioned institutional building again. The infamous and fabled Willowbrook is one of the pivotal features of the film.

Gives me the willies, but I've watched it several times.

If you'r talking about "thing's that go bump in he night " I don't disbelive , havent had any persenal experci my self .. Plus next week dlcripple and my self are going to try to find a place on the walker river called The elbow then go in futher to find a old place that all that is left is a hot tub bilt into a hot spring . Come on doesn't that sound GOOD .? hanging out in a hot spring , ice on the river good beer good compnyand maby a little gold in the river { i'll bring the pans and sluice box's }

Something I want to add:

I agree the more dilapidated buildings are more for adventure rather than play. Also beware of squatters and other dangers such as asbestos. Always be prepared when venturing into these places.

Also, upon research, the recently closed hospital I was referring to, which had electricity, furnishings, etc., was not entirely abandoned. It had been bought up by an agency for use as a filming/photo location.

Which means you can LEGALLY rent out the hospital for use in a movie or whatnot! 😁

Check out Century City Hospital and RFK Hospital at http://www.metrolocations.com

In several Spanish camping sites I've encountered rooms or parts of a building, that are still accessible and were once in use as small regional medical centers or treatment rooms. Most of them still had medical equipment or furniture still in them - usually a medical table of sorts and small cabinets still stocked with (old) instruments.

Now these rooms were not abandoned as such, but they were no longer in use for any medical purpose ... it was as if they had been forgotten, no longer in anyone's mind and just left as they were out of inertia or lack of a better idea. In these places I know there were more recently built medical centers, larger and more modern.

The first time I encountered such a former medical room was in a very empty camping grounds in the north. It was in a corridor where other rooms were in use as washing rooms and showers and there was still a padded inclined table, a large standing lamp and a desk and cabinet with some old instruments ... finding it was like getting an electric shock of sorts. At night it was fun to go inside and look around and imagine things, the darkness in the corridors and late hour enhancing the atmosphere. Once I came out of that room and made for a washing room to do the nighttime routine of brushing teeth etc. It was very hot and I was half undressed, ready for the washing room. When I went out of the medical room out into the corridor I was surprised to encounter another camper (the only other one that day)... he just gave me a sort of sly, half-knowing look as I went to wash up ... he certainly must have known what was in the room I had just left ... or so it seemed at any rate ...

I think old hospital are creepy, they just remind you of the places in horrormovies where the protagonist walks in and you know that nothing nice is going to happen in there. Especially the really old ones look like you are going to find a dead body as soon as you look into one of the rooms.

Playing in the abandoned hospitals reminds me of what can be done to you--like in the SAW movies.

Although it sounds like a fun idea, it's not so great once you look at the risks in involved. When I was younger, my friends and I went to an abandoned medical facility once because, of course, local lore said it was haunted. We actually did see an old table and stuff all over the place. However, I would NOT recommend this to anyone. Now that I am older and wiser, I realize that we were lucky that none of us was arrested, assaulted or hurt. In addition to the legal trouble mentioned above, abandon buildings my be structurally unsound and/or have dangerous debris laying around. Keep in mind that older buildings are full of lead and asbestos. When these elements are not maintained and secured, as is likely in an old abandoned building, you can easily be exposed to them.

I think SurgicalFoley came up with a good solution.

When I was a young bride (ha), my husband and I lived in Manchester, NH, a city that at one time was the largest producer of wool fabric in the world, even surpassing the production of mills in the UK. After a time, the buildings were abandoned and fell into disrepair. They were great building (still are) but full of environmental and structural hazards. In the late 1979s and early 80s, funding became available for urban renewal of the buildings. The renovations started with a building known as Amoskeag #1 and a crew of workers went in to begin demolition and removal. Within a few days, they all became illl with a "mystery" disease. Imagine the surprise of the public health authorities when they were all diagnosed with anthrax!! Sadly, two workers lost their lives but the building were decontaminated and renovations went forward. Today, those mill buildings are the anchor to the central business district.

I always find it interesting when things turn around like that. And... Anthrax?? Yeah, you're right, lol.

Evidently, there were anthrax spores all over the place because the mills received enormous shipments of raw wool. Spores were dormant in the soil surrounding the buildings and in the buildings themselves. When the spores were stirred up and inhaled, bingo!

I don't think you are going to be able to easily rent a building for anything like that without putting up a substantial bond first.

Probably not. But with a few friends and some creativity you can probably do pretty well. I've been to scene parties in warehouses in Brooklyn that would work.