High Royds Asylum dominates the surrounding West Yorkshire landscape with its 130-ft tall clock tower. It looks anything but an asylum which is a stunning piece of architecture replete with Italian mosaics and elegant tile work. This 300-acre Grade II listed site has been compared to a palace rather than a psychiatric institution. The building deteriorated in 2003 but is being re-developed for housing. High Royds opened in 1888 as the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum and was designed by J. Vickers-Edwards and is arguably the finest example of a broad arrow layout. The self-contained High Royds formerly boasted a library, surgery, butcher shop, dairy, tailor, sweet shop, bakers and cobblers as well as its own railway system. At its peak High Royds could house 1,300 patients.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 23:30:00 +0000
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