Visit 2: July 2007

The building I had looked at the end of the last visit I had since learned was the Nurses Accommodation, and having found access to it on the previous trip, we headed straight there. After getting inside this building, it was clear it was not as impressive or photogenic as Cameron House. It smelt a bit funny too. Nevertheless, I was still glad to be in there, and again my heart was racing.

There was evidence of pikey activity in this building, with cables strewn across the floors, missing their copper cores. Determined to find something interesting in this building, we went into the roof space and down into the cellar. Half way down the cellar steps, I changed my mind. It was very dark down there, and not expecting to be going underground I hadn't brought a torch. We left the building, and I took some outdoor shots of it, one in infrared.

From there we headed to the main building. Through some mud, under a fence and away. Hiding in the trees, checking we weren't seen. St Luke’s is a huge building, and it still had its roof mostly intact. Very on edge now, it took a good few minutes before we decided it was safe to leave the cover of the trees and approach the building. Carefully walking up to it, constantly checking our surroundings making sure we were not spotted was exhilarating. I shouldn't be here, and there were people employed to look out for, and stop people from being there. Didn't see them though. After gaining access to St Luke’s, the first thing I spotted was a shoe. It wasn't a workman’s shoe, or that of an other explorer. No, it probably belonged to an ex patient, or member of staff. Bits like that really made me stop and think, and thinking back just 15 years and wondering who would be stood where I was then and what would be going on in these rooms. Had a quick look round one of the wards, and then into a corridor. Brief trip up a lift shaft to have a look at the motors and switch gear up there and then down to the ground floor. Downstairs was a bit creepy. The windows were boarded down here, and it was dark. The floors were not solid. The corridors were full of holes, and tricky to navigate but fantastic to photograph.We didn't stray far from the main corridor, weary of loosing track of our way in. Creeping along, stopping often because we could hear things. Finally rationalising the noises as water dripping in various parts of the building.

We found the main hall, it was dark. The floor was full of holes. Again we didn't have a torch with us, and didn't fancy risking the floor. So I just took it all in from the door, was quite amazing looking it. The detailing on the walls, the ceiling, and the fact that there was still Christmas/party decorations up made it feel even weirder.

After seeing a few more sights, we headed back out, carefully retracing our steps.