| Seacliff Lunatic Asylum | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| Geography | |
| Location | Seacliff, New Zealand |
| Coordinates | 45°40′31″S 170°37′20″E / 45.675254°S 170.622091°E |
| Organisation | |
| Type | Specialist |
| Services | |
| Beds | 500[1] |
| Speciality | Psychiatric hospital |
| History | |
| Construction started | 1878 |
| Opened | 1884 |
| Closed | 1973 |
| Links | |
| Lists | Hospitals in New Zealand |
Seacliff Lunatic Asylum (often Seacliff Asylum, later Seacliff Mental Hospital) was a psychiatric hospital in Seacliff, New Zealand. When built in the late 19th century, it was the largest building in the country, noted for its scale and extravagant architecture. It became infamous for construction faults resulting in partial collapse, as well as a 1942 fire which destroyed a wooden outbuilding, claiming 37 lives (39 in other sources), because the victims were trapped in a locked ward.[2][3]
The asylum was less than 20 miles north of Dunedin and close to the county centre of Palmerston, in an isolated coastal spot within a forested reserve.[3] The site is now divided between the Truby King Recreation Reserve, where most of the old buildings have been demolished and most of the area remains dense woodland, and privately owned land where several of the smaller hospital buildings have been renovated completely.[4][5]
Seacliff is claimed to be haunted by former patients of what was the country's biggest building at the time.[6]
- ^ "Seacliff Hospital fire". christchurchcitylibraries.com. Christchurch City Council.
- ^ Fire: Seacliff Mental Hospital (from the Christchurch City Libraries website)
- ^ a b The Seacliff Fire (from Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand)
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
PDFwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Seacliff asylum's painful and haunting history – Otago Daily Times, Saturday 27 January 2007
- ^ Haunted New Zealand Road Trip. New Holland Publishers. 2017. pp. 264–265. ISBN 9781869664640.