Thursday 5 April 2012

A Bit About Luke.

(Image from trip 3, Canon 600D)
Domestic Gothic style of architecture, from designs prepared by Messrs. John Kirk & Sons, of Huddersfield and Dewsbury, this location keeps pulling me in like a magnet, and terrifying me at the same time.  The centre building is 216 ft. long and 52 ft. broad, and three stories high. This would explain how long this location is taking to explore. From the front entrance you witness a long corridor and a set of stairs. It broken up to a left and right wing. The left side was for the women, right side for the men. Before it became a hospital this and several other buildings were the only few that stood. An infectious unit, a school, a chapel, porters lodge and dining hall. The first room on the left as you enter was the matrons room, then as follows, visiting committee's room, the governor's private rooms, and bedrooms. The remaining part of the building, on the right hand, is divided into six day-rooms for the men ; with four staircases to the dormitories, and doors into airing-grounds; and, to the left, into six day-rooms for the women, also with four stair-cases to the dormitories, and doors into the airing. grounds and accommodating 218 inmates. Behind the building, in the centre, with a direct road from the corridor under the principal stair-case and the dining-hall. Of course now modernised, the site has acquired serveral other buildings when it was future used as St Luke's hospital. It has been thought that this was once an orphanage somewhere along the line.  As some records were "missing" 7 years before the adoption act came into place in 1927.  In 1961 it was also known as St Luke's maternity hospital. The information i have found so far has been little. It haunts me, and is also making me more obsessed, because i haven't yet managed to find out much about the location. This anxiety is making it harder for me to explore the areas  in which i have not been. When the Workhouse became a hospital, it is said that it was somewhere where family members took other family members there to die. The are reported of suicide and sadness revolving this location. And is giving me sleepless nights.  Below is a little more information on the place, an open writing about the workhouse from a personal story.


The Porters Lodge 2012. The Building Today. (My Own Image)
Infectious Unit 2012. The Building Today. (My Own Image) I had other images of the other buildings...but they have just vanished out of thin air from my laptop. Spooky.


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