Opened in 1870, the London Asylum for the Insane sits amid a beautifully calming wooded landscape. Among its scattered architectural remnants are cottages, a chapel, and the imposing gothic-revival Medical Examination Building.

Advanced for its 1903 completion, the medical facilities boasted skylights, solaria, dental care, and isolated dorms. Hydrotherapy was offered as a forward-looking treatment alongside “moral therapy,” a compassionate and humanitarian-based approach. Though the decaying operating theater serves as a pointed reminder of less empathetic methods.

Despite progressive intentions, asyla like London’s are typically seen as nightmare fodder. However these abandonments afford a hopeful perspective, where architectural form followed the function of the most innovative and compassionate patient care available—at the time.