Cane Hill: Closing the Door DOCUMENTARY
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
- A documentary I made whilst at University in 2008 about the Cane Hill Asylum in Coulsdon, London. Whilst making it I discovered my own grandmother Lorna Hallyburton worked there on admin whilst it was still active, and was introduced to the old staff some of whom still drank at the Comrades Club nearby. Although security would not let me enter, and even chased me and Ernie when we were walking nearby, getting to meet the people who actually lived and worked there provided a different story. Please excuse the cringey editing!
Update: On 13 November 2010 a fire took hold in the administration block and went on to destroy all but the front facade of the building. The fire also destroyed the iconic clock tower. At about midnight, firefighters saw the clocktower crash to the ground in the blaze. The fire had been started in the basement of the building, draughting its way up through the ground and first floors before finally destroying the roof.
Still remember the patients from 1980, the wards - Pugin, Cruden and others in this labyrinth. May the Lord have Mercy on Their Souls.
40 odd years ago I worked there. I remember David, Michael Caine's bro clutching a big bottle of cola and the image will be forever scratched in my mind. God Bless.
Did David ever visit him?
I was born in Croydon in 83 I've been to cane Hill a few times, 4 of us went inside and it's 1 of the creepiest places I've been 💯
Really good documentary thanks for uploading.
worked there as a floor cleaner 79-80 smoked weed non-stop as one of the Sunderland mob. Got into Buddhism and meditation. weird times.
God bless all the souls who lived there.
Fantastic! I was hoping to find a documentary about Cane Hill on UA-cam somewhere! Some really good archive there and interviews. Very moving poem at the end too, a poignant inclusion. Don;'t stress about the editing, that's always an ongoing improvement/development process anyway. The piece in general is very atmospheric, interesting and respectful so that's exactly what a doc should be. I hope you received a good mark for the piece way back in 2008!
A very interesting family connection too! Have you produced any further videos on this subject?
Though I never got round to exploring the place, I'm working on an asylum model which incorporates aspects of Cane Hill's exterior and interior which is a part urbex, part UK asylum-history related project. I'm occasionally in touch with the guys who run the two CH history websites for guidance on the project and accompanying website and videos, but I haven't been able to get in touch with Ernie Townsend via his Twitter. Anywho, if you're still involved or interested in Cane Hill, please do let me know!
Ah thank you! I ended up quitting film and getting into music production. I never lost my fascination with Cane Hill though. Making that documentary went from someone local telling me how dark and scary it was, to actually finding out the other side of what it was like. I have tried to get in contact with Ernie recently, but did not get a reply. I really hope he is in good health. Lorna passed away in 2017, but I am glad to see people on the Cane Hill Facebook page bringing up old memories. My mother went to a staff Christmas party there in 1988 whilst pregnant with me, that is the closest I ever got aside from my walk around the perimeter with Ernie.
@@krosis6078 Oh, UA-cam didn't inform me of your reply, bad youtube! I know a few people who cross between music and film, they are really complimentary disciplines. Would be ace to make videos/films and score them too!
Shame about Lorna. How do you feel about the site now? I'm amazed so much has gone. I thought they would have reconstructed the iconic admin facade and clocktower though, or built a replica of it, similar to how a replica of one of the villas has been built at the former Severalls Hospital site - which is also now a housing estate.
There's very little in the way of actual documentaries about the UK's asylums, so something in-depth and un-sensationalist is very illuminating. Yes, I can imagine this went from being some mythical, spooky legend in your mind to becoming a physical place with real people in reality. I've had a similar journey with my project, at least with regard to researching the websites, your documentary, Ernie Townsend's archives etc. I tried contacting him as well but didn't get a reply either - though I'm just a random person to him so I assumed that was why. I spoke to Ali Costelloe over email though so that was cool and he was very helpful. Have you spoken to Simon Cornwell before? He also has a ton of info on Cane Hill with multiple visits and research, and he's really nice as well.
@Martin the Maker Cool, would be good to see as well! Will it be an explore video or your account of the place? Wow... I can't imagine sleeping in such a place. Though I hear the explorers would often sleep on the Browning/Blake beds and then explore from dawn. Yes, there's very few of these types of sites anymore, and if there are, security is so tight now that it's unlikely you could do it. I was going to say that Cane Hill was the UK's version of the famous Danvers Asylum in the US, but even Danvers wasn't as preserved and labyrinthine as Cane was.
@@linehanvaleminiatureasylum1226 no worries! I actually don't know too much about the site now. I occasionally see photos of cleared land, but to be honest it feels a bit painful to look at. Which is strange as it needed to go. The fire that destroyed the tower was really upsetting to hear about. I would be pleased to hear of any attempts to preserve some of its history. I think there is a cottage still there on the edge of site though? Some people in the facebook group where remembering when they lived there. I haven't spoken to Simon, and I just heard about Ali when trying to find Ernie's archives. I had no idea he actually made any to be honest! I haven't even been back to Coulsdon since. Whilst writing this I did find something by Simon. He wrote:
"These vignettes, sprinkled through the text, send frissons down the spine: Cane Hill is transformed from a decayed ruin full of hospital junk into a vibrant community where people worked, played and died"
Reading that was quite strange for me! 11 years later and it reminds me how I went through that exact same journey when filming. I interviewed my Nana hoping for grim insight and horror stories, to instead get an insight into a vast community, with real lives, ups downs, joys and deaths. Somewhere people who were there remembered fondly.
And thank you for your feedback! Honeslty that is a joy to hear. I had not really thought about it but you are right, there are not many documentaries on UK asylums, certainly not that go into more realistic depth about the people. Its a shame more where not made whilst more were still standings. Great footage on your St John's video by the way!
@@krosis6078 Oh right, yes, I can imagine it feels like a massive downer going back, tbh, on many levels. I had the chance to visit the site in September. All expensive cars and non-descript new builds. But, at the same time - i saw happy families in still leafy surroundings, so the warmth of a community returns once more, really.
Has Cane Hill influenced your music making at all? Did you hear about/see the music video shot outside admin when it first closed? There's a link on Ali's site.
Well the "1882" stone from admin is somewhere...it was saved intact from the fire and collapse. No one knows where it is though? Also, the demolition company Squibbs bought all the reclaimed bricks and those are presumably now being reused in the building industry. Maybe there's artefacts being collected for a museum?
Yes! Simon is great at eliciting not just an emotion but also the context, it grounds the places.
The thing is - much like with the history of the Titanic - the story has become a bunch of myths and tropes (locked gates, corrupt manager, faulty rivets, cursed cargo, greatest ship in the world etc etc) and all the nuance and banality and minutiae of its real history is lost. Its the same with institutions like Cane Hill - they exist now in the collective memory as abandoned horror palaces from vintage times staffed by anonymous monsters. It's harder to learn from them and its less interesting when it's reduced so much. When I first heard about asylum urbex I also didn't really care about the places, I just wanted to see all this cool abandonment in such spooky places, too. I must admit that though that the human stories are usually too heavy for me, so I stick to the design and architecture of these places. Kudos to yourself, Ali, etc etc for actually capturing the personal stories as well as all the buildings themselves. Really good call to record your nan too! what surprised you the most about her account? I wish i had recorded my grandparents' accounts of their jobs in decades gone by.
Oh thanks! :-D Means a lot as well! So thanks a bundle! I'd like to make more than just another mood-piece about these places, but I get very caught up on the aesthetics when filming, the atmosphere that comes across at that time. Unsurprising that I wanted to start building a model, I guess.
Hi Rob, it's fascinating to see this footage. How did you get hold of the Hipposcope film?
Thank you! They actually posted it to me at the time of making it. I think they either intended it for a project that never happened or were just happy to share. I'm struggling to remember now!
Remember cleaning sister hallyburton's office as a floor cleaner, even though I was stoned all the time, I always did my job.
Ah man, that makes me smile. She was my grandmother. I was very close to her but did not know she worked at Cane Hill until I had already started the project. She died a few years ago now, but it is always amazing to hear when people knew her.
@@krosis6078 God bless her and all the souls. Remember smoking Jamaican grass in her office and cleaning the floors with a buffing machine.
@@krosis6078 God bless her soul. still coming back to this vid
Nice one Krosis. Pax vobiscum. Om shantih
remember the priest at Cane hill's social club - an Irish fella - being dragged out by four guys after going mental that the juke box was playing ' take five ' by brubeck and and shouting ' the record's fooking stuck 'the next morn was sermonizing to the nutters in the church
It was not a perfect place, but could easily have moved forward with medical progress and advanced knowledge. People lived at Cane Hill. It was fully staffed with people were trained to do specific jobs. There was hope of support, improvement and being able to be well enough to leave.
What a weird place was the bin on the hill
It didn't close in 92. I worked there in 2000
Hello again! I messaged last year (Linehan Vale Asylum Model). I'm editing a video on Cane Hill at the moment. Just returned from the archives at Croydon yesterday to bring more detail into the voiceover and visuals. I'd be really interested have a quick chat over email about your uni project and your meeting with Ernie and his own video forays in CH, plus this documentary features some of the only footage of the place that isn't the usual urbexer-vlog style you get on UA-cam. Please let me know if you're interested and perhaps there's some other platform to exchange email addresses.
ernie must be ernie townsend.
Bowie's stepbrother Terry Burns who was schizophrenic spent his life here.
Ernie Townsend!!!!!
A legend by all accounts.