Where I Live...

I live in a beautiful part of the world.
Warlingham in Surrey, just within the M25 London orbital motorway, but essentially in the countryside.
Great Park is a superb gated community of 85 acres of woodland/grassland, that for almost 100 years was a mental asylum (1902 - 2000) pioneering some frightful treatments.

A forbidding place, at the forefront of psychiatric drug research, Electro Convulsive therapy, and the earliest operations for Frontal Lobotomy.
All three procedures drove already desperately disturbed people completely insane.
In the year 2000 it was demolished and a beautiful residential development was constructed.
Just Heavenly.

Behind the park is a dense wood, that used to be the mental hospital cemetery between 1903 and 1960.
The trees which were cleared away to create the cemetery have taken over once again, and all the evidence you can see is an occasional numbered ceramic stake identifying the resting place of the unfortunate patient.
Bear in mind that many of these patients were unwanted young girls, who had unwanted pregnancies, who were conveniently disposed of here, sometimes for life!
Some others were ‘family misfits.’
Not all families had a benign attitude to their children, and could turn a ‘difficult’ (ie normal) child into a disturbed scapegoat.

If you read Scottish Psychiatrist R.D. Laing, he explains how the the actual mental illness (schizophrenia) frequently resides in the parents, and other siblings, not the problem child at all.
(It might be worth looking at that in a different post. Very ‘off topic’ I know, but this forum is called ‘General Chat.’)
The cemetery gates are opened just one day a year, and when I ducked and dived between the dense foliage I only managed to find one grave - amongst the stake markers.
Most patients just got a number.
All so sad.
But now, the park is beautiful.

(Footnote - if you need any emotional help, give the psychiatrist a wide birth, and find yourself a really good psychotherapist.
Just my own personal view - having had experience of both.
Trick-cyclists belong in a fairground.
I am speaking to you as an ex-nutter.
Some of my mates question the “ex” bit.)

 

Thank you for this post.

I love visiting old cemeteries. The ones in Italy can be spectacular (e.g., The Monumental Cemetery of Staglieno in Genoa
https://www.google.com/search?q=staglieno+cemetery&client=firefox-b-1-ab&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwifxf3bi4faAhVEz2MKHc_jCaYQ_AUICigB&biw=1024&bih=469 ).

 

HI @Jazzer

A nice place where you live. Surrey does have some beautiful locations. I now live in Brighton, Sussex not far from you. As I look through my upstairs window, over Patcham and towards the south downs it's a splendid sight and don't ever want to leave the countryside. I am very close to the sea and love basking in the sun at the coast. The sound of the waves lapping against the shore provides the perfect sound enrichment.

Take care
Michael

 

“I’d rather have full bottle in front o’ me
than a full frontal lobotomy....”

 

@Bill Bauer - spectacular they are, but sculptures of the dying I find pretty gruesome; however, the art of sculpture amazes me.
The iconography is pretty amazing, but doesn’t really touch me spiritually. I don’t have a religious bone in my body, if I’m honest.
One of my friends said “....so you don’t believe in anything then?”
Not true.
I believe in kindness, nice people....and....er.....
Pussycats x. (Bet you never guessed that one?)

 

Where I live. This is my backyard. View from my kitchen window. A town 60 miles north of NYC. I'm blessed. Just a calm serene place that helps me much.

 

Many of those are life-size life-like sculptures of people from the 19th century. One famous statue is the statue of a widow taking one last peak at her husband

Surprisingly, Christianity is a relatively minor theme when it comes to those 19th century sculptures. When it is not realistic sculptures, it is more along the lines of "Dancing with Death" like the one below

 

@OnceUponaTime - “WOW” so beautiful. xx

 

@Bill Bauer - pretty amazing concept this one Bill - if death looks that, it should be a breeze eh?

 

Taking a stroll at those 19th century Italian cemeteries is relaxing (as there are few other visitors there) and at the same time one is subject to sensory overload (so one is not going to be bored there).

 

Cemeteries spook me...I never go there!!

 

Yes, I agree.

 

If you Were to visit Staglieno Memorial Cemetery in Genoa, I bet it would be unforgettable.

 

Interesting. I like visiting old cemeteries....It is quiet and much history there. Very relaxing.

 

Yes, I agree, this does look magnificent. I have been to Italy, but not to this area.

 

Yes, I agree, this does look magnificent. I have been to Italy, but not to this area.

 

Interesting view on Schizophrenia.
The treatment of mentally ill patients in the past was horrendous.

 

The guidebooks never mention cemeteries. I saw a BBC documentary about Staglieno cemetery, and it ended up being my gateway drug.

 

@Bill Bauer - I love snappy sayings.
In 1993 I played a two week engagement at the Sacramento Jazz Festival. A dream gig.
I got to know a charming old guy there, who came to the festival every year.
While I was sitting in the airport bus, waiting to leave, he came on to say goodbye.
“Well, very nice to meet you, my friend.
‘I’ll see you in the future - if not - in the pasture.’”

 

So much more gentle then the terrain I live in, really appears peaceful.

 

Hey.....I now recall going to the Catacombes in Rome Italy when I was in my twenties; okay I guess I do visit cemeteries. However, there were plenty of tourists and we went underground, so it was not the serene, pleasant experience you are describing, Bill.

 

I haven't been to the Catacombes, but that sounds like the kind of a place to turn one off of visiting cemeteries, for good... Having said this, thank you for mentioning it. I will want to look into it. I've heard about the ones in Paris, but not about the ones in Rome...

 

I live on the side of a mountain on the outskirts of Vancouver. 5 seconds to the middle of nowhere and 20 minutes to Downtown (in good traffic)


https://photos.app.goo.gl/rFRcPGMdZIyIn3PF3

https://photos.app.goo.gl/NePxNk2td2rl3Ltm1

https://photos.app.goo.gl/zqV8J3c83YDUfsZl2

https://photos.app.goo.gl/c6wjn8dIvWRZSBa83

 

I looked at the photos, truly breathtaking!

 

I am blessed to live where I do. Not many people have what I have at my disposal.

 

Were you born there, or did you move to this area as an adult?

 

My family came from England (both sides) in the 1880's to Vancouver island. My parents moved away from the coast in 1952 because my father had a job
In a city called Edmonton and ended staying for 35 years. As soon as I graduated from high school I moved back to the coast and have been here ever since. I would prefer to be on the Island, but Vancouver will do.

 

I would say you have it pretty sweet, much nicer then Edmonton.

 

Hi @krispin , @Sonic17,
My wife - Sylvie emigrated from Rotterdam to Vancouver, (well Burnaby) with her family in 1958, and she lived there from age 13 to 23.
She was PA to the Dean of Arts at Simon Fraser University for some years, before marrying an oilman and moving to Huston Texas.

 

@Bill Bauer - how about this painting of
“Isle of the Dead” by Arnold Boecklin,
for proper spooky.
As you may know, it inspired Rachmaninov’s great symphonic poem, of the same name.
Ferryman Charon rows a shadowy figure across the lake to the final resting place of ‘all dead souls.’
The motion of oars in the dark waters, is depicted in the opening theme.
I used to enjoy listening to it, but the variable decibel range now puts it ‘beyond the pale.’
Getting a bit ‘highbrow’ this morning Bill.