A look inside the former Whittingham Hospital

An urban explorer and photographer from Penwortham has created an interactive map of the former Whittingham mental hospital.

It now stands empty on the outskirts of the city awaiting development into homes and offices.

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The buildings prove a magnate for urban explorers who want to venture inside its abandoned ruins.

John Taylor, 33, has put together a map showing you what it’s like inside the different parts of the former asylum complex.

He said: “I became interested in virtual tours when I was at university as they had only just started to become widely used. At the time I has just started looking into doing freelance photography work and I bought a special fisheye lens and a virtual tour tripod adapter kit so that I can offer it as a extra photographic service for companies that needed them doing.

“As for the inspiration as to why I chose to use the kit at Whittingham Asylum, then that is because whilst at university I also studied a lot of fashion and documentary work – as part of my documentary research I came across the photography of abandoned place, also know as urbex or urban exploration. I became fascinated by the idea of having a nosey around forgotten buildings that have been left to rot.

“They’re like a time capsule at start, but as time goes on and nature takes over, these buildings vanish so fast, and I think it is a great way to document the architecture of the building before it gets demolished and turned into yet another housing estate. I spent most of my final year of university documenting abandoned buildings and wrote my dissertation on the fascination of decay.

“I produced a few exhibitions of prints which I’ve got on my site also in my personal projects section. I was explaining to people who don’t really like the idea of going into buildings like this what it is like when you are in there and I figured that it would be a good idea to do a virtual tour to give some kind of idea as to what it is fully like inside.”

The virtual tour can be found on John’s website.

What do you think of the map? Have you ever been to Whittingham? Let us know in the comments below