Severalls Hospital, former psychiatric hospital
Severalls Hospital is a former hospital in Colchester, England, now mostly empty or converted. The complex is made up of red brick buildings arranged in a stepped layout, with long pavilions that once held wards and covered corridors connecting them.
The hospital was built between 1910 and 1913 to care for people with mental health problems. After damage from a bombing in 1942, the complex was rebuilt and later became part of the National Health Service before closing in 1997.
The name Severalls comes from the original estate on which the hospital was built. The layout used south-facing pavilions to give patients as much natural light and fresh air as possible.
The site is mostly closed and many buildings are in disrepair or have been demolished. Some structures remain visible, but access is usually not possible as the grounds are marked for redevelopment or clearance.
The recreation hall once featured a fully sprung dance floor used for events and dances. This floor was badly damaged in a fire in 2005 when the building was already empty.
Location: Colchester
Inception: 1913
Address: Colchester CO4 6DA, UK
Website: http://severallsmentalhospital.co.uk
GPS coordinates: 51.91852,0.89374
Latest update: December 4, 2025 12:52
This collection brings together former psychiatric hospitals and sanatoriums that carry difficult histories and reputations as places where the past seems to linger. Many of these buildings stand empty or have been converted to new purposes, but they all share a common thread: they once treated patients under conditions that were often experimental and sometimes cruel. Over the years, accounts of mistreatment, strange occurrences, and unexplained presences have drawn historians, urban explorers, and visitors curious about the darker chapters of medical history. From the northeastern United States to isolated corners of Europe, Asia, and other regions, each site tells its own story of suffering and change. The collection includes places like Willard Asylum in New York, where patients spent entire lifetimes behind its walls, and the Gothic Revival ruin of the Smallpox Hospital on Roosevelt Island, now visible only from a distance. In Italy, the Ospedale Psichiatrico di Volterra grew from a medieval hospice into a sprawling complex, while Severalls Hospital in Essex treated patients for more than a century using methods that ranged from electroshock to lobotomy. Rockhaven Sanitarium in California offered a gentler approach for women, yet its empty cottages now evoke a sense of time standing still. Whether exploring the overgrown pathways of Letchworth Village or walking the silent corridors of Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, visitors encounter buildings that witnessed decades of human struggle and transformation.
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