The North Wales Hospital (locally known as Denbigh Mental) was a hospital for people with psychiatric illnesses located in Denbigh, Denbighshire, Wales.
Designed by architect Carl Johan Aru to originally accommodate between 60 and 200 patients, the building dates back to 1848, and originally had its own farm and gasworks. Planned for closure by Enoch Powell from the 1960s, it was closed in sections from 1991 to 2002.
Now derelict, on October 31, 2008, Living TV's Most Haunted did a live series, The Village of the Damned on location in the North Wales Hospital which spanned over the course of a week. The producers of the show were criticized by residents of Denbigh for slurs against the town and the hospital.
On 22 November 2008, during work to renovate the building site and convert it to apartments and residential properties, the building caught fire; it was later confirmed that the main hall of the hospital was destroyed. Arson is suspected.
Currently on the buildings at risk register, planning permission has currently lapsed, while Denbighshire council are planning urgent repairs and to bill the current owners/developers.
Famous quotes containing the words north, wales and/or hospital:
“The compulsion to do good is an innate American trait. Only North Americans seem to believe that they always should, may, and actually can choose somebody with whom to share their blessings. Ultimately this attitude leads to bombing people into the acceptance of gifts.”
—Ivan Illich (b. 1926)
“I just come and talk to the plants, reallyvery important to talk to them, they respond I find.”
—Charles, Prince Of Wales (b. 1948)
“The sun his hand uncloses like a statue,
Irrevocably: thereby such light is freed
That all the dingy hospital of snow
Dies back to ditches.”
—Philip Larkin (19221986)