St. Johns Asylum
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St. Johns Asylum was designed by John R Hamilton of Gloucester. Assisted by Thomas Percy, Surveyor to the County of Kesteven. The asylum was also called "Bracebridge Heath Asylum," but its formal name was the long and cumbersome: "Lindsey and Holland Counties and Lincoln and Grimsby District Lunatic Asylum.
It also operated under the name: "Lincolnshire County Pauper Lunatic Asylum. The asylum was actually built in 1852 on a slight rise in Bracebridge parish, covering 120 acres. Originally built to house 250 inmates, it was enlarged in 1859, 1866, 1881 and 1902.
The grounds were cultivated by the inmates to provide vegetables and the sewage was disposed of by irrigation over 10 acres of land about a half mile away from the asylum.
St. Johns also had a cemetery of one and half acres on the grounds, with its own mortuary and chapel.
Inmates at St. Johns were sometimes referred to as "Visitors" whilst some records exist at the Lincolnshire archives dating back from when the asylum opened in 1852 there are lots of gaps and some papers have a 100 year closure period on them for some reason?.
The asylum finally closed in 1989 and was bought by a property developer a few years later who has converted half of the site into houses but the main asylum buildings are Grade II listed buildings and cant be demolished.
The exterior of the main asylum itself has been completely restored to its former glory and does look very impressive, inside how ever is a different story, virtually every room and corridor is stripped bare. Basically the entire site is just one giant shell with hardly anything of interest to see.
There is only two features that stand out, the water tower and the Y shaped stairwell.
St. Johns is a bit of a disappointment really, on one hand it looks stunning from the outside with its freshly sandblasted walls and striking water tower which dominates the site and on the other hand it really has nothing to offer at all bar the rather elegant staircase behind the admin building.
One thing that does stick out is the amount of cells that inhabit its vast long corridors, they are very confined and dont appear to have changed at all since the asylum opened in 1852.
That aside though it made for and interesting hours worth of exploring, to be honest this place is only worth seeing really if you are in the vacinity.
