A history project focused around the former Leavesden Hospital has finally located footage of murals believed to be created by patients in the area’s underpass – images previously thought to be lost forever.
For many years, former park ranger Martin T. Brooks has been leading the Leavesden Hospital History Association (LHHA), dedicated to recording stories, images and documents relating to the old asylum. The institution was a major part of the village from 1870 until its closure in 1995.
The work undertaken by the LHHA over the past 15 years includes recording the oral history of former staff and patients, and documenting the names of all those buried in the asylum cemetery.
Martin said: “Until I started this project, nobody would talk about the asylum. Now, a lot of people have told stories about how much they enjoyed working there.
“For me, working to get the names together at East Lane Cemetery was the most personally fulfilling part of my life. All of those names had been forgotten.”
However, one of part of the hospital’s history had long been lost to Martin: the underpass that ran underneath Asylum Road (now known as College Road), which connected the asylum to St Pancras Workhouse and Industrial School. Opening at the same time as the hospital, the building catered for parentless children until 1930, when it was closed in favour of smaller facilities.
The underpass between the two sites was constructed to protect patients from crossing the busy road, but also to allow them to pass between buildings undisturbed by the public eye.
For many years, Martin had heard unconfirmed stories of murals painted by patients inside the underpass.
However, when the hospital was closed in the 1990s, the tunnel was filled in. Though the northside entrance to the passage is still visible in Leavesden Country Park, any possibility of exploration has been rendered impossible.
But recently, Martin was kindly sent more than 400 photographs and two videos by Cherry Jackson, who worked as a physiotherapist at Leavesden Hospital between 1971 and 1995.
Amongst these rare items are photographs and footage of the underpass, taken just a week after the hospital closed. They clearly show the murals, which feature mostly sea creatures such as fish and seals.
Martin is pleased to have yet another long-forgotten part of the hospital’s history on record, though it is unknown when the murals were painted and if it was definitely the patients who created them.
For now, the LHHA’s work continues, finding more aspects of the building’s storied history and preserving it for future generations.
To find out more about LHHA , visit their website.
To view the recording taken by Cherry of the underpass and of the hospital’s grounds, click here.
Photo credit: Cherry Jackson
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