Fear of the unknown: Local horror stories
On the east side of Highbury Avenue,
north of Dundas Street and
south of Oxford Street East, dwells
London’s old Asylum for the Insane
(LAI), standing since November
1870.
The original main hospital building was torn down in 1975. The last remaining weathered and old discoloured brick buildings that are the infirmary, horse stables, recreation hall and the Chapel Of Hope still lurk on the grounds behind St. Joseph’s Regional Mental Health Centre, with boarded up windows and a hair-raising historical vibe that draws you in closer and closer until you find yourself standing face-toface with fear.
Fear of the unknown.
It’s rare to find anyone who has actually been given the opportunity to see what the inside of the abandoned building looks like since the old structures have been closed off to the public, but luckily an anonymous source who was offered an “off the record” tour of the facility by the maintenance supervisor in 1998, posted his experience on explorationproject.blogspot.ca and revealed that it was a decision he regretted “almost immediately.”
“The imagery that comes to mind when inside is at times, gruesome,” said the source. I was not a ‘believer’ in the supernatural, until that day. Inside the old building, there are noises, sounds, things that I could simply not ‘explain away.’”
“There is a sadness that you are hit with upon entering,” he said. “It stays with you the entire time. The basement consists of draconian cells made of thick steel bars and old stone. There are still (at that time in ‘98) metal fixtures on the walls that were once used to chain patients to the walls. The top floor has a large boarded up area on the roof, that can be seen from the outside that was utilized for sunlight as that was the room in which lobotomies were performed. And many other surgeries.
Another anonymous source admitted that she had ventured inside the Q Building this year.
“I actually managed to get inside with a group of my friends,” she said. “They didn’t exactly clear out the building, there’s still some equipment. The moment you get inside you feel like you want to leave. It’s got an unnatural feeling to it.”
Back in the 19th century, poorly paid untrained attendants were responsible for the treatment and care of patients. As a result, institutional violence, wrongful confinement, and surgical experimentations and other institutional atrocities often took place.
Ever heard of the saying that “idle hands are the devil’s playthings?” Well you could almost say that the property’s 300 acres of landscaped grounds were based off this premise.
The land that the asylum was built on is a significant reminder of the approach that the second superintendent Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke had in regards to his belief in the therapeutic benefits of labour on patients’ health and rehabilitation.
However, Bucke was part of the absurd surgical experimentations that took place in asylums across Canada. He believed in the theory that there was a direct relationship between masturbation and insanity.
It is known that he had performed over 200 controversial experimental gynaecological surgeries on female patients due to the theory that a women’s mental health was intimately linked to her reproductive system.
In males, he treated masturbation by surgically inserting a silver wire through the patient’s foreskin which made it impossible to masturbate without pain and injury
It wasn’t until after Bucke died in 1902 that the third and following Superintendent Dr. George A. McCallum recognized the need for trained nurses and established such training at the LAI.
“Murders, sexual abuse, borderline atrocities were committed on human beings in those buildings,” said the source. “From patient upon patient, staff upon patients, and patients upon staff. Even the old horse stable that can be seen from Highbury Road had horrific stories attached to it. He [the maintenance supervisor] had heard stories, first hand, from doctors and employees who had worked there before him. I did not doubt this man. His intent was not sensationalism.”
“The supervisor had been there for decades. The things he had seen with his own eyes in our ‘modern times’ were enough to turn stomachs. He was one of the first people to see the results of the patients that had decapitated another in the 1980’s. Remember that?” The source said.
Brad Howard, a local Londoner, recalls the beheadings from his youth.
“Years ago, my dad worked there as a psychiatric nurse’s assistant and it was a Halloween night and I know that somehow one of the patients had gotten a hold of a bread knife. You know, one of those serrated bread knifes? And going through the rounds they found one of the patients with their head nearly cut off from this woman using the bread knife on her,” Howard said. “And they used to hang themselves in all the apple trees and all that.”
LAI has officially made the number one spot on my list as the creepiest – yet interesting – place in our city.
The original main hospital building was torn down in 1975. The last remaining weathered and old discoloured brick buildings that are the infirmary, horse stables, recreation hall and the Chapel Of Hope still lurk on the grounds behind St. Joseph’s Regional Mental Health Centre, with boarded up windows and a hair-raising historical vibe that draws you in closer and closer until you find yourself standing face-toface with fear.
Fear of the unknown.
It’s rare to find anyone who has actually been given the opportunity to see what the inside of the abandoned building looks like since the old structures have been closed off to the public, but luckily an anonymous source who was offered an “off the record” tour of the facility by the maintenance supervisor in 1998, posted his experience on explorationproject.blogspot.ca and revealed that it was a decision he regretted “almost immediately.”
“The imagery that comes to mind when inside is at times, gruesome,” said the source. I was not a ‘believer’ in the supernatural, until that day. Inside the old building, there are noises, sounds, things that I could simply not ‘explain away.’”
“There is a sadness that you are hit with upon entering,” he said. “It stays with you the entire time. The basement consists of draconian cells made of thick steel bars and old stone. There are still (at that time in ‘98) metal fixtures on the walls that were once used to chain patients to the walls. The top floor has a large boarded up area on the roof, that can be seen from the outside that was utilized for sunlight as that was the room in which lobotomies were performed. And many other surgeries.
Another anonymous source admitted that she had ventured inside the Q Building this year.
“I actually managed to get inside with a group of my friends,” she said. “They didn’t exactly clear out the building, there’s still some equipment. The moment you get inside you feel like you want to leave. It’s got an unnatural feeling to it.”
Back in the 19th century, poorly paid untrained attendants were responsible for the treatment and care of patients. As a result, institutional violence, wrongful confinement, and surgical experimentations and other institutional atrocities often took place.
Ever heard of the saying that “idle hands are the devil’s playthings?” Well you could almost say that the property’s 300 acres of landscaped grounds were based off this premise.
The land that the asylum was built on is a significant reminder of the approach that the second superintendent Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke had in regards to his belief in the therapeutic benefits of labour on patients’ health and rehabilitation.
However, Bucke was part of the absurd surgical experimentations that took place in asylums across Canada. He believed in the theory that there was a direct relationship between masturbation and insanity.
It is known that he had performed over 200 controversial experimental gynaecological surgeries on female patients due to the theory that a women’s mental health was intimately linked to her reproductive system.
In males, he treated masturbation by surgically inserting a silver wire through the patient’s foreskin which made it impossible to masturbate without pain and injury
It wasn’t until after Bucke died in 1902 that the third and following Superintendent Dr. George A. McCallum recognized the need for trained nurses and established such training at the LAI.
“Murders, sexual abuse, borderline atrocities were committed on human beings in those buildings,” said the source. “From patient upon patient, staff upon patients, and patients upon staff. Even the old horse stable that can be seen from Highbury Road had horrific stories attached to it. He [the maintenance supervisor] had heard stories, first hand, from doctors and employees who had worked there before him. I did not doubt this man. His intent was not sensationalism.”
“The supervisor had been there for decades. The things he had seen with his own eyes in our ‘modern times’ were enough to turn stomachs. He was one of the first people to see the results of the patients that had decapitated another in the 1980’s. Remember that?” The source said.
Brad Howard, a local Londoner, recalls the beheadings from his youth.
“Years ago, my dad worked there as a psychiatric nurse’s assistant and it was a Halloween night and I know that somehow one of the patients had gotten a hold of a bread knife. You know, one of those serrated bread knifes? And going through the rounds they found one of the patients with their head nearly cut off from this woman using the bread knife on her,” Howard said. “And they used to hang themselves in all the apple trees and all that.”
LAI has officially made the number one spot on my list as the creepiest – yet interesting – place in our city.
