Cane Hill - the far side of town

[theonlysminor]

Good video and its great you made the video. Loved it from start to finish

[MrCutMeLoose]

This is right by my house!! Mostly gone now though

[nobbythenobbler]

If you think this is a freaky place get this......my father was the fire officer of cane hill and our house adjoined the mortuary. (H Blunden) If you were to knock through from our kitchen you'd be in the body fridges. I used to have nightmares about it as a child. Dreaming that there were bandage wrapped bodies under my bed. This vid brings back memories. claim to fame.my bro and I used to sneak my dads skeleton key and get into the square water tower. we swum in the huge water tank in the top

[hamstercrazy09876]

i wanna go there

[mashamorgan]

It must have been doubly awful for Terry Burns being stuck in here whilst his famous multi millionaire brother was having a great life. Sadly no one ever said life was fair !!

[onepinkrose]

If there's anymore derelict asylums about in Britain, someone should make a low-budget horror movie in one of these places. They freak me right out. If the 'Blair Witch Project' can get arses on seats then anythings possible. Great upload.

[JoshuaV69]

go in there at night with just a flash light its way more creepy lol

[DStunn3r]

It's a shame they let them ruin to the point of demolition. It's awesome having a piece of psychotic history around. I walked around in Lakeland Insane Asylum in New Jersey and it's creepy as shit seeing blood stains on the floor in more than one place in the whole main building.

[puppetdesign]

It's a shame they allow these places to ruin.

[davidbowiefan100]

Thanks for posting, I used to live in Purley and spent my work experience at Cane Hill in the 1970's. It was a happy place then and the patients were well looked after, so sad to see it like this....

[mischief83]

R.I.P Cane hill.

Spent one of the scaryiest nights of my life in there!

[elliotf282]

Did they allow people to go in and look around before?

how did you lot get in?

[RAndyVee]

Nope ... people weren't allowed to go in and look around which is why there was a big fence with razor wire atop and active security. However, fences are made to be climbed ;-).

[GEDmega]

thanks for uploading this. I used to live in Carshalton as a kid and had to drive passed Cane Hill on the way to my grandparents house. My dad used to tell me these freaky stories about it (I really don't think they were true!) and so it's always been a place of fascination for me!

[sof2finchy]

erotic

[RAW555R]

great vid whats the tune that starts at 6:55?

[RAndyVee]

It's a section of a track by the quality English prog rock band Camel. The full title of the song is "Nimrodel/The Procession/The White Rider" but the bit in the video is the last couple of minutes worth. More typically live the whole thing was called "The White Rider". If you'd like to hear the whole thing and you're a Spotify user, go and listen to Camel's album Mirage where it's listed as "Nimrodel - Medley".

[RAW555R]

bloody 'ell! you clearly demonstrate a sound knowledge of your subject! I'll seek it out, Cheers

[uuufail]

Those ceramic tables at 9:10 are where they drain the blood out of dead patients. These places are fascinating to visit, but when i went west park asylum it was fuckin dangerous cos loads of the floors had fallen through, and if you fall in there when no one knows exactly where you are - your fucked

[The7011]

yea that is a good asylum too, watch 'west park insane asylum' if you like that kind of stuff all the patients personal belongings are still there, but yea these places are dangerous

[SaucyBegger25]

cane hill will never truely be gone, thanks to people making these videos and picture videos :) i love it.

[eilis3]

14/05/09 have watched this video again it has to be the best on you tube,i fukin LOVE it,i wish id have gone up there to see the old place...........

[RAndyVee]

Sadly a large amount of CH has now been demolished. Indeed the demo started the day after my video was shot. The chapel, water tower and admin building are being preserved, and currently there are some of the female side wards left.

[eilis3]

superb,first class video,my bro (who was 38 when he died) put me on to a web site called urban desertion,cane hill is on that web site but only photos,it is FUCKIN sweet to have a video tour of the asylum,what state is it in at the moment? whats going to happen to the old place? i love the main chapel,not touched for years nice one.

[propjam2]

I got i question if any of you ue's would like to answer?: Have any of you guys been walking around these old places and felt like you were getting followed or watched by something, or have heard funny noises or shallows move or ghosts etc. I would love to hear anything anyone has to say,

[RAndyVee]

Simple answer is no! There's no such thing as ghosts, and I hence I must admit I never get spooked in places like these. Chavs or junkies are a much more real risk!

[propjam2]

A fair point.

[yoyoholck]

@RAndyVee is this in england? i bet you couldnt stop thinking about the wasted lives that got locked and druged in there for years, they just needed help

[RAndyVee]

@yoyoholck Yep ... Coulsdon is on the outskirts of London. There were sadly far too many people who ended up institutionalized in asylums for patently wrong reasons eg. having children outside of marriage.

Sadly almost all of Cane Hill has been demolished. Just the water tower, chapel & admin remain, & admin was almost destroyed by arsonists just the other week :-(.

[87cadillachearse]

I keep saying I must go to europe, and I should. Here in the states we've had so many beautiful asylums (most of them built in the Kirkbride style) demolished to make way for a Wal Mart and semi luxury condo complexes. Europe seems to let thier history stand for all to see and remember a little better than us.Americans are far to quick to take out the "trash", without realising the treasure under the dust.

[RAndyVee]

In the UK I'd say that it was initially more a case of us being lazy and not knowing what to do with our asylums. Therefore they were left to grow derelict as millstones around the NHS' neck.

That then all changed with the creation of a Government organization to raise money from the sites resulting in their rapid sale and demolition/conversion for housing. About the only upside of the global financial crisis has been the slowing/stopping of that with the housing market stalling.

[tom1984uk]

the asylum's in england were all beautiful victorian buildings. in the 1950's there was 102 asylums in the uk

now only 10 remain open. most of them were demolished or converted into apartments

[PearlJammer07]

The music suites the video just fine. Fuck all you haters. Amazing footage!

[Stormtrooper1488]

Bloody dangerous place to explore with all the rotten floors It wasn't even a good place to smash stuff either with security breathing down your neck if there was noise. Good riddance I say.

I think admin, the chapel and water tower are to be saved. God knows why the water tower. It is not high or impressive at all.

[RAndyVee]

Very few of the floors were rotten ... basically only on ground floor offshoots and some later added extensions. Main buildings were totally solid. And if you're any where to "smash stuff" then I'd hope security do get you and hand you over to plod for criminal damage.

Admin, chapel and tower are being kept. The tower is considered a "local landmark", so whilst I agree it's not an architecturally nice one, it has some local importance.

[Stormtrooper1488]

I think some of the wards on the female side could have been made into flats.

Stuff that gets smashed will get demolished anyway. It's easy to get sentimental but the big machines will do much more smashing than we ever will, so nobody cares. Not security or Mr Plod.

[RAndyVee]

Well apart from the fact that I've never understood why anybody would take pleasure in smashing historically and socially interesting stuff up, the real problem I have is that the damage artificially accelerates the decay and justifies the developers just tearing things down to build souless boxes rather than converting the existing buildings.

Either way, as you say in CH's case the demo machines have been even less forgiving.

[dannyfenton97]

is that hellingly

[RAndyVee]

Err ... no it's Cane Hill.

[TheTimeChmaber]

sweet Randy from thetimechamber ;)

[bronzeonion]

wow spooky! did you wear a respirator in the room with asbestos?

[RAndyVee]

Nope ... it was laundry and so very well ventilated owing to the absence of a roof ;-).

[joejoe931]

i live in coulsdon and ive herd of cane hill but ive never been there

[RAndyVee]

Sadly you've missed you chance to take a look at in its "prime" since a lot of demo has gone on since I visited. However, the water tower, chapel and admin building will live on :-).

[uphillcastle]

One time I went into Cane Hill about 2 years ago. I was on my own and wanted to get pictures of cane hill in the snow. It was so early that, it was still dark in the hospital. It was funny because I wasnt scared at the time, in fact I felt quite secure. I actually felt quite afraid when I got back to my house and before sleep the darkness of some of the rooms came back to me. Blacker than night in some rooms, I didnt even look into them just walked on, just not to jinx some unseen movement.

[weeknightingale]

Very interesting! Thanks for posting this!

[turbochrissie]

Really enjoyed your video, thanks for sharing.

[lev2383]

my mates and i went there about 9-10 years ago, it was exactly like that!!

It was quite freaky aswell, and we did it at like 1am!

I knw that a part of it was in use, but not so sure now. I know this coz my dad did the alarm in the bit still in use!

[RAndyVee]

Up until fairly recently there was still a secure unit on site. When most of the large asylums closed there were certain patients who couldn't be integrated under "care in the community" and so many sites retained secure units.

[NoOneCatchMe]

Can you not get in there anymore? Me and my mates went there at 2 in the morning last night and couldn't get in.

[macdoktor]

indeed r.i.p cane hill :( i love urbex in all its glory. The bowie link was a relative of his was a former resident there. I jump at the chance to do anything related to this hobbie but not a lot of friends are into it. Anywho well done !

[apieforoli]

i got kicked out of there lol

[TyrannosaurusGnome]

I like this video very much. Great choice of artists! The music suits the footage perfectly.

[turdzilla456]

that was a good video i like all these videos of old buildings

[dga223]

when will posters of these type of videos realize rock/pop/rap music just does not work when viewing. something eerie or weird is much more suitable.

[RAndyVee]

When will the less imaginative watchers of these types of videos realize the predictable eerie/weird music is exactly that ... predictable and adding little value.

You do understand the significance of the music in this case? Not only lyrically pertinent, but also on the Bowie track a very direct and personal link between the artist and the subject matter!

[lonelyboy03]

His half brother was in there and his mother too for a time, I think. He used to visit in street clothes all the time. His bro jumped from a window and died.

[RAndyVee]

His half brother did indeed jump from a first floor window and broke several limbs but survived. However, he later committed suicide on the railway track just down the hill at Coulsdon South station.

[NecroViolator]

Thanks for the nice Vid...

[geekboy888]

awesome video, went there many times but never got in, i love the last song too, beautiful

[3dmaxuser]

Cane hill is such a cool place shame its going now :( . nice video mate well done :)

DMAX

[stealthpiccasso]

Nicely Captured...

[CHEWY49UK]

Brilliant stuff :)

[mattdonut]

great vid mate

good choice of tune too.