Through Forgotten Windows: Unveiling Haunting Views from Abandoned Asylums (30 Captivating Photos)
Ever wondered what stories an old, dusty window might tell if it could talk? I mean, these aren’t just any windows—they’re the peepholes to worlds where Victorian and Edwardian lunatic asylums once housed some truly complex tales. Since snapping my first shot back in 2008, I’ve been hooked, chasing these eerie, abandoned places across England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and even Italy. These buildings, some dating as far back as 1713, stand stubbornly against time, their windows framing scenes mostly untouched for over two centuries. It’s a bit like stepping into a time machine, yet one that makes you pause and wonder: What did those who looked through these very glass panes feel, think, or dream? Maybe that’s why I kept clicking—sometimes forgetting the camera—to just stare and feel, even if guessing the emotions of the past is a tricky dance. So, if you’re curious about these hauntingly silent witnesses to history, you’re in the right place.
Article created by: Ed Brando
I’ve been shooting images of abandoned Victorian and Edwardian lunatic asylums and mental hospitals ever since I was first asked to shoot one single image of the outside of one as an illustration for a book, back in 2008.
The building in question opened in 1852 and had already been abandoned since 1989. While the weather, nature, vandals, and plunderers of various types had already taken their toll on the building, it still stood imposing, defiant and forbidding. Somehow it had managed to avoid the fires, both accidental and deliberate, which had typically put an end to dozens of others as they stood awaiting the final judgment of a society that had once celebrated them as a solution to a whole range of perceived medical, moral and social problems, but was now falling over itself to sweep them away for housing, car parks, and shopping malls.
I wanted to present one of the lesser considered aspects; a collection of views of and from windows in some asylums and mental hospitals in England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Italy, built between 1713 and 1937. These were often the moments where I would pause a little longer, forget the photography for a moment or two to just look and listen, and feel, or believe I could feel, just a little more able to stand in someone else’s shoes for a second. And even if in reality, of course, I had no idea how any of the patients themselves felt, the frame and aperture that a window provides meant I knew I was definitely standing in the exact spot and seeing a scene that in some cases was almost entirely unchanged from what they had looked out on, sometimes more than two and a half centuries ago.
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