A little history on the accompanying hospital.

Clayton Hospital is named after Thomas Clayton, a mayor of Wakefield and was founded in 1854. It was an amalgamation of Wakefield General Dispensary, founded in 1787, and the Wakefield House of Recovery, founded in 1826. Wakefield General Dispensary was for out-patients and the Wakefield House of Recovery was for poor in-patients suffering from infectious diseases.

In 1852 the Wakefield Union Workhouse was completed and its hospital wards accommodated pauper invalids and fever cases, so that the House of Recovery was closed in 1854.

In 1863 Mayor Clayton financed an expansion and the institution was re-named 'The Clayton Hospital and Wakefield General Dispensary'. The site moved from Dispensary Yard to the present site in 1876 and the new building was opened in 1879.

By 1948 the name was changed to Clayton Hospital and it had a capacity of 200 beds. History on the Morgue istself is scarce. It seems as if it has ben abandoned for quite some years judging by the decay. [pinched off the internet]

After that brief history, we didn't go inside the hospital. From what we could see it was trashed beyond anything I'd seen and the apparent unsavoury people living inside it meant we gave it a miss and stuck to the morgue.

A tiny building, entry was tricky via a tiny window 10ft off the ground. Getting through it with all our bags and tripods was akin to a scene out of a Laurel & Hardy film but we managed it! Maybe an hour or so was spent insdie capturing the peeling walls, soaked floors and decaying interior. No slab remains but the huge freezers are still in situ. Morgues aren't my favourite type of location to photograph, but the strange colours and decay meant a few decent photographs could be had. I was quite happy to be out after an hour such was its claustrophobic feel.