whateversleft.co.uk

What is Whatevers Left?

Whatevers Left is a long-running British urban exploration website that documents abandoned and derelict places, mostly in the UK. Its focus is stated plainly on the homepage: "Take A Journey Into The Unseen World Of Urban Exploration — Abandonment, Dereliction, Decay." In practice, it is a photo-led archive of visits to closed institutions and industrial sites, with each entry giving a location and a date.

What it covers

The site organises its explores into categories that reflect the classic UK urbex subject matter:

• Asylums — the largest group, covering former psychiatric hospitals such as Cane Hill, Cherry Knowle, High Royds, Severalls, West Park and Whittingham.
• Hospitals — general hospital buildings, including Bristol Royal Infirmary's old building.
• Industrial — mills, warehouses and factories, such as Robert Fletcher & Son in Oldham and the Imperial Dock Grain Warehouse in Leith.
• Underground — deep shelters, railway tunnels and wartime rooms, including the London Road Deep Shelter in Portsmouth and the Clifton Rocks Railway in Bristol.
• Leisure, Military and Other — cinemas, defence sites and miscellaneous buildings.

Entries are dated, ranging from the mid-2000s through to the 2020s, so the archive doubles as a record of what has been demolished, redeveloped or sealed off since.

How it is organised

The homepage surfaces three ways into the content: Recent Explores, Random Explores and Most Viewed. The most-viewed list is dominated by asylum sites, with Cane Hill, Cherry Knowle and Sunnyside Royal at the top — a useful signal of which locations readers find most interesting. A site map and category index make it easy to browse by region or building type rather than chronologically.

Who it is for

• Urban explorers planning UK trips — the location-and-date format helps you judge whether a site is still standing and how long ago it was documented.
• Local historians and researchers — the asylum section in particular records buildings that have largely disappeared from public view.
• Photographers — the site is built around images of decay and dereliction rather than detailed written histories.

What to keep in mind

This is a personal archive, not a directory or a guide with access information. Dates tell you when a visit happened, not the current condition of a site, and many of the asylums listed have since been converted or demolished. Treat entries as a historical record and a starting point for your own research rather than as current intelligence.

A practical next step: if a specific building interests you, start with the category index — for example the asylums list — and compare the visit date against local news or council planning records to see what has happened since.

Which abandoned asylums and hospitals are documented on Whatevers Left?

Whatevers Left is a personal archive of UK urban exploration, and its strongest coverage is the former asylum and hospital estate. The site groups these under an "Asylums" category alongside Hospitals, Industrial, Underground, Leisure, Military and Other, so hospital sites appear both as purpose-built asylums and as general hospital buildings.

Asylums documented

The navigation lists these asylum sites: Cane Hill, Cherry Knowle, Denbigh, Deva, Fairmile, Gartloch, Glenside, Graylingwell, Hartwood, Hellingly, High Royds, Lancaster Moor, Mid Wales, Pen-y-Fal, Rauceby, Runwell, Severalls, Springfield, St Cadocs, St Edwards, St Lawrences, St Marys, Stanley Royd, Stratheden, Sunnyside Royal, Tone Vale, West Park, Whitchurch and Whittingham.

Individual explore pages add detail for some of them, including Cane Hill Asylum in Coulsdon, Cherry Knowle Asylum in Sunderland, Tone Vale Hospital in Taunton, West Park Hospital in Epsom, Whitchurch Hospital in Cardiff, Sunnyside Royal Hospital in Montrose and Springfield Hospital in Tooting. St Mary's Asylum in Stannington and Pool Parc Hospital in Ruthin appear among the random explores.

Other hospitals and related sites

Hospital-category entries include the Bristol Royal Infirmary old building, Haslar Hospital in Gosport, Harperbury Hospital in Radlett and Deva, Countess of Chester Asylum in Chester. The archive also covers non-hospital dereliction: the Bank of England House in Bristol, the Brislington War Room, a bomb-proof records room in Bristol, the Plaza Cinema in Port Talbot, Robert Fletcher & Son's Greenfield works in Oldham, the Imperial Dock grain warehouse in Leith, the London Road deep shelter in Portsmouth and a heavy anti-aircraft battery at Portbury.

How to use the archive

The "Most Viewed" list is a practical starting point if you want the best-documented sites: Cane Hill leads, followed by Cherry Knowle, Sunnyside Royal, Harperbury and Deva. Dates on each entry range from around 2008 to 2022, so treat older reports as historical records of buildings that may since have been demolished, converted or sealed. If you are researching a specific county or health authority, work from the A–Z in the navigation rather than the recent-explores feed, which mixes categories.

How can I plan a visit to an abandoned hospital featured on the site?

Start by choosing a specific location page, then treat the site as a research archive rather than a trip planner. Whatevers Left covers former asylums and hospitals across the UK, with named sites such as Cane Hill, Cherry Knowle, High Royds, Whittingham and Tone Vale, plus categories for hospitals, industrial sites, underground shelters and military remains. The pages show what the places looked like when photographed, not whether they are still standing, accessible or safe today.

What to check before committing to a visit

• Current status. Many former asylum sites have been demolished, converted into housing or redeveloped. Confirm the buildings still exist before travelling.
• Ownership and permission. Most featured sites are private property, NHS land, active construction sites or secured compounds. Entering without permission is trespass and may be a criminal offence in some circumstances.
• Physical condition. Asbestos, unstable floors, rotten timbers, exposed shafts and contaminated materials are common in long-derelict hospital buildings. Photographs from 2008 or 2010 tell you nothing about today's structural state.
• Legal and personal risk. Security patrols, cameras, dogs and police response are realistic possibilities. A hospital site is not a public park, and an injury inside a sealed building can be difficult to reach.

A practical planning sequence

1. Pick one site from the hospital or asylum listings and read its page for layout, building names and surrounding area.
2. Search for recent local news, council planning applications and satellite imagery to establish whether demolition or redevelopment has happened.
3. Check the official landowner or council website for public rights of way, open days or heritage tours.
4. Decide whether you are visiting legitimately — for example through an organised heritage open day, a photography permit or a guided walk — or whether you should photograph from public paths only.
5. If you go near the site, tell someone your route and expected return time, and avoid going alone.

For context on how these buildings are recorded and discussed, Historic England lists many former hospital complexes and their listed status, while The Urban Explorer and 28DaysLater host reports that often include later updates on demolition or conversion. Compare the date of any report with the site's condition today.

The realistic trade-off is simple: the safest and most reliable way to see a former asylum is through a legitimate open day, a heritage trust or a public footpath around the perimeter. The site is best used to identify which buildings are worth researching, not to confirm that a visit is possible.

What safety and legal considerations should I know before exploring derelict sites?

Exploring derelict sites carries real risks that no photograph can convey. Whatevers Left is a long-running personal archive of UK urban exploration, cataloguing asylums, hospitals, industrial buildings, underground shelters and military structures, with entries dated from the mid-2000s onward. Its subject matter is the buildings themselves; the safety and legal side is something you must research separately and treat as a precondition, not an afterthought.

Physical hazards you should assume are present

• Structural instability. Fire-damaged floors, rotten timber, loose roof slates and crumbling masonry are common in hospitals and industrial buildings of the kind catalogued on the site.
• Asbestos and other contaminants. Older UK institutional buildings frequently contain asbestos in lagging, ceiling tiles and cement sheeting. Disturbing it is a serious health risk.
• Unsafe floors and voids. Lift shafts, service ducts, cellar hatches and open stairwells are often unlit and unguarded.
• Air quality. Confined underground spaces — deep shelters, tunnels, cellars — can accumulate low oxygen, carbon dioxide or flammable gas. Never enter these alone or without a gas monitor.
• Electrical and mechanical hazards. Live or apparently live cabling, exposed switchgear, rotating machinery and pressurised systems persist long after a site closes.
• Sharps and biological waste. Needles, broken glass and rodent contamination are routine in former hospital sites.
• Weather and light. Rain makes surfaces slippery and rapidly floods basements; failing light turns a straightforward route into a maze.

Legal position in the UK

Trespass itself is generally a civil matter, not a criminal offence, but that is a thin comfort. Aggravating factors commonly turn an entry into a criminal matter:

• Criminal damage if you force a door, break a window, cut a fence or damage anything to gain access.
• Burglary if you enter a building as a trespasser with intent to commit an offence inside — this can include theft of fixtures or fittings.
• Aggravated trespass where someone is intimidated or obstructed from lawful activity.
• Specific site designations such as military land, railway property, royal parks, protected sites and sites covered by byelaws, where entry alone may be an offence.
• Health and safety and corporate manslaughter exposure for landowners is one reason security is often aggressive; you may also be banned from the site or from wider landholdings.

Scotland, England and Wales differ in detail, and local byelaws vary. If a site matters to you, check the current position for that jurisdiction rather than relying on forum folklore.

Practical decision criteria

Before going, ask:

1. Is there any lawful way to see this — an open day, a permission visit, a heritage trust tour, a public footpath with a legitimate view?
2. Do I know the site's ownership and any byelaws or designations?
3. Have I told someone where I am going and when I will be back, and do I have a check-in plan?
4. Do I have the right kit — helmet, gloves, boots, two independent lights, dust mask rated for the hazard, first aid, charged phone?
5. Can I honestly say I will turn back if anything looks wrong?

The single most useful habit is to treat "no" as a valid answer. Many of the buildings documented on Whatevers Left have since been demolished, converted or made far more dangerous; a dated entry is not a current risk assessment. For context on how these sites change over time, the archive's own listings show how quickly a building can move from accessible to gone.

If you want to explore heritage buildings legitimately, organisations such as English Heritage and the National Trust for Scotland run openings and events, and Derelict Places hosts discussion where access, permissions and site conditions are often covered in more current detail.

Which urban exploration locations in Bristol are covered by Whatevers Left?

Whatevers Left is a UK urban exploration archive, and Bristol appears repeatedly across its hospital, industrial and underground sections. The Bristol locations named in its listings are:

• Bristol Royal Infirmary – Old Building — filed under Hospitals (October 2018).
• Brislington War Room, Region 7 — filed under Underground (October 2020).
• Bomb Proof Records Room — filed under Underground (June 2020).
• Shedload — filed under Industrial (April 2020).
• Bank of England House — filed under Other (September 2022).
• Clifton Rocks Railway — appears in the site's Random Explores list (June 2009).
• Heavy Anti Aircraft Battery Bristol B2, Portbury — Random Explores (March 2010); Portbury sits just outside the city, near the Avonmouth approach.

How to use this list

The site is organised by category (Asylums, Hospitals, Industrial, Underground, Leisure, Military, Other), so treat the Bristol entries as a starting map rather than a current access guide. Urban exploration sites age badly: a location documented in 2009 or 2010 may since have been demolished, redeveloped or secured. Check the report's date before travelling, and expect the older Bristol entries — Clifton Rocks Railway and the Portbury battery especially — to describe conditions that have almost certainly changed.

For cross-checking what still exists, official sources are more reliable than any explorer archive: Historic England for listed buildings and scheduled monuments, and National Rail if a site sits near a live railway, since railway land is both dangerous and heavily enforced. For a broader range of UK explorer reports, 28 Days Later is a long-running forum where Bristol threads appear regularly.

The practical decision rule: use Whatevers Left for historical context, location names and what a site once contained; verify current status separately before making any trip.

How has the content on Whatevers Left changed since it was archived by the British Library in 2010?

The site has not changed in kind, but it has changed in pace and coverage. The archive date of 2010 sits near the end of Whatevers Left's most active period: the popular entries cluster around 2008–2010, with Cane Hill, Cherry Knowle, West Park and Tone Vale all published in that window. After 2010 the explore log thins out sharply. A few entries appear in 2011, 2015, 2017 and 2018, then a small late burst in 2020–2022 covering Bristol locations such as the Brislington War Room, a bomb-proof records room, and the old Bank of England House.

What shifted

• From asylums to a wider mix. The early core is hospitals and asylums, listed by name in the site's own navigation: Cane Hill, Denbigh, Hellingly, High Royds, Severalls, Whittingham and many more. Later posts lean towards industrial, underground and military sites, with hospitals still present but no longer dominant.
• From regular output to occasional posts. The 2008–2010 run reads as continuous; the post-2010 entries are spaced years apart, which suggests the site became an archive of occasional trips rather than a regularly updated journal.
• From a large indexed collection to a partly static one. The asylum index remains the most substantial part of the site, and the "Most Viewed" list is still led by 2008–2010 asylums. Newer posts have not displaced them in visibility.

What this means in practice

If you are researching British asylum architecture, the value is concentrated in the older pages, and the 2010 archive snapshot captures the site close to its peak. If you are following urban exploration as a living hobby, the post-2010 entries are sparse and geographically scattered, mostly around Bristol and the south-west.

A useful next step is to compare this site's asylum coverage with a broader UK-wide record such as 28DaysLater, which hosts a large, continuously updated exploration forum, or Derelict Places for a similar mix of reports and discussion. For the specific hospitals named here, County Asylums covers the institutional history in more depth than a photo-led explore log typically does.