Denbigh pauper lunatic asylum, otherwise known as North Wales Hospital, was built in 1844 after the lunatic act passed in 1808 stated that every county in the country was to provide an institute for the mentally ill. By 1840 North Wales was still without such an institution because the poor rural communities could not afford to erect one. This meant that the most seriously ill pauper lunatics were sent to the English Asylums, which forced the metropolitan commissioners to investigate the need for an asylum for mentally ill welsh patients. Joseph Ablett of Llanber Hall anonymously donated 20 acres of land to the project which was then funded through donation from the royal family. The original buildings housed up to 200 patients, but soon enough the hospital came under ever increasing pressure to support its patients and relieve over-crowding, this led to a number of extensions occurring throughout its life; the most major extension work happened in 1899. This allowed the Hospital to house 1500 patients at its peak and offer a wide range of treatments. As society's outlook on the mentally ill became modernised, industrial therapy units at Denbigh and across all other asylums like this one were aimed at the rehabilitation of chronic patients who had lost the ability to cope with life outside an institution, and was of heightened importance during the time when Margaret Thatcher abolished government funding for the institutes and enforced new legislation resulting in the closure of British asylums for the mentally ill, who were instead to be integrated into society as they are today. Once the inmates departed, the hospital finally closed its doors in 1995 and has remained empty ever since, causing the buildings to degrade to a very poor state. The main buildings were Grade II listed under the phoenix trust by Prince Charles in 2004 and have had major structural reinforcement to the roofing to prevent any further water damage happening to the undeniably beautiful 19th century Architecture. In it’s prime, the estate housed everything from a high security ward, a morgue, a church, and a seperate nursing home. All of which are just about still standing. With many areas reduced to rubble, what's left now takes on a different kind of beauty.
