CAN you remember Colchester when a Gothic asylum used to loom on the skyline?

Where the imposing Essex Hall hospital once stood, blocks of flats now stand off Station Way, perfect for the thousands of commuters travelling in and out of Colchester North Station every day.

But many Colcestrians will remember looking up to see the Eastern Counties Asylum for Idiots, Imbeciles and the Feebleminded, which used to stand next to the station.

When it was built in 1859, the hospital was only the second of its kind in England- the first was Bedlam.

But at Essex Hall, teaching and training took precedence, and it was at Essex Hall where the term “special care” came into common use.

The original building was a great, Gothic-style house with tall chimneys, which was extended to cope with demand over the decades.

By the 1900s, the hospital had become the Royal Eastern Counties Institution for Mental Defectives and the hospital was taken on by the NHS when it was established in 1948, along with Colchester's seven other hospitals.

Severalls Hospital, which opened in 1913 as Essex County Mental Hospital, was a branch of Essex Hall. It closed in 1997 and is in the process of demolition.

Essex Hall shut in 1985 and photos from the Essex County Standard archives show the hospital in better days, as well as the vast excavated site which made way for homes.

  • Have you got any old pictures of Colchester you would like to share? Email gazette.newsdesk@nqe.com