Tales of the Urban Explorer: St. Margaret's Maternity Hospital
Getting a decent shot of St. Margaret's Maternity Hospital for my cover picture was not going to be easy.
The building is so overgrown with greenery it's hard to see from some angles.
I had to content myself with the same one most explorer’s use, which is not so great and shows the house to be quite small.
It is far from small, and a large rambling double property connected by a long corridor which I almost missed.
The weird thing is about this place, someone is maintaining the lawns but everything else is growing wild. Let the place turn into a jungle but please keep the grass short!
The mysterious lawnmower man was not there when we visited which was a blessing as I did want to have a good look around the externals.
Since I have visited, the entire house has been sealed up, so good luck if you want to visit and have a look around.
Some passers-by noticed us climbing over the gate, but I have stopped bothering. If they want to go squeal then let them.
St. Margaret's Maternity Hospital opened in 1912 and was run by the Leeds Diocesan Rescue and Protection Society. It provided care, using religious influences, for unmarried young women and girls who were pregnant for the first time.
In more recent times, the Headingly site has been used for a variety of purposes including the accommodation of asylum seekers, and offices for post-adoption support service and the Leeds Youth Offending Team. The site closed in 2013.
Seven years of being empty, that’s getting a little close to the edge. The upper floors may be a little spongy, we would have to go in and see.
Did they go for the Smartwear security solution I wonder?
Despite it being empty for so long there were still things knocking about. Someone liked their classical box sets.
This room needs a damp proofing course I would say.
Sarah talks about her step-father, though it’s a little hard to read. Is it really from 2008?
I went in St. Margaret's Maternity Hospital with two other people who wandered off in random directions. I may as well have been soloing this one. It’s huge inside.
That’s a poor bed too sleep on and was someone’s room once. It was for youth offenders, perhaps this is training for jail later on in life?
This messy newspaper is from 2015, and is a London newspaper. It made me wonder how it got here?
The stairs were surprisingly sturdy, I wasn’t going to fall through and die today.
Susan Jean Hopkins will be 70 now, what is a 'learning agreement'?
There was plenty of old stuff to dig in.., not paying your TV license, tut!
This one is from 1983 where comedian Dave Allen is visiting next week.
That’s a large budget for 1983; I was still at Kwiksave earning peanuts.
Once again in the basement, there is a torture table, though all the chains and ropes have been nicked.
I was surprised to see some kid's books as well as more grown-up ones.
The TV's with faces, all CRT's with inbuilt VCR's.
There are several staircases at St. Margaret's Maternity Hospital, I counted three but I think there’s a fourth.
The pocket money arrived, well that’s good; sad memories of the past.
The photographs don't do it justice, this is a decent mid-sized explore with an element of creepiness. I doubt I would go in there alone, though it felt like I was for the most part.
If you do want to go, be prepared to climb.
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It's funny how the eighties seem both so very far away and also not that far away. And who on earth would be keeping the grass but nothing else maintained. Very peculiar!
Another explorer I know visited when the mad mower man was mowing the grass! He did get in but had to be extra careful. Who is mowing the grass? It's a great question.
It is almost one of life's great philosophical questions!! Hehe
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You better get your lungs checked! That is some nasty black mold! Nice shots. I am glad this one turned out to be pretty decent for you.
I am coughing more that I used too, I do feel all these dodgy places are not doing me much good.
It's really quite a place. I wonder if I was carried to term in a place like that? I actually have an address that I've never checked....
I can't believe some of the furniture left behind.
Don't you wish you'd have gone to work at St. Mags instead of KwikSave? No Mort and you know the girls have done the big nasty at least once....
All entry level jobs I think were shit in the early 80's, they were probably worse in the previous decade. It would have been operational then and maybe better than Kwiksave.
Many of these old homes have gone under due to bad conditions and abuse, I went in one last weekend which was closed down due to the staff abusing the patients.
I'm always intrigued by your contents about the abandoned buildings. The architectures are really different from the buildings here in my area, but the atmosphere is the same. There a building I'd really like to visit in my area, it's an old paper mill whee my father worked when I was a child. Now is really in a bad condition and a couple of years ago I took some pics of it just of the wall, but I'd like to go inside ^_^
I do try and focus on the contents, they can tell a story if you can find the right ones. As for your building..., take Pablo with you!
Another crack den rotting away :) One of these days you will put a foot through the floor. It really looks like everyone just left one day and didn't bother to take stuff with them.
There was a lot left, more than I expected. I have put my foot through the floor, but it's always been the ground floor... so far.
Tread carefully. Is there any danger of running out of places to explore?
Locally yes, we are having to travel further to see more of them.
It's always heartbreaking to see a building, a home, a hospital in this condition. You think of how this was someone's home or workplace once for years.
I love the building though from outside.
Nice photo shoot!
I salute your dare to visit this type of place, its looking scary in a view and for historical or architecture purpose it will be great... Thanks for sharing
I like the third pic, so much greenery!
The grass mowing thing might be some BS city or county ordinance thing. They dont give a crap about the overgrown bushes but the lawn! it must be maintained per guidelines or face the councils wrath!
Schau mal @lyra-discover total klasse
there be a great mix of stuff to root through there. very sassy
It is one you would like for sure, think of Mossley and it's in the same bracket.
very nice i may stroll up there
Did you take out a subscription to www.isthederpsealed.co.uk?
Mine expired yesterday or I would check for you.
They must want the grass cut to keep rodents down perhaps.