St Clement's from the Hip

Peter: 20th Oct 2005 - 17:31 GMT

nice! elaine, i like it when you shoot photos like this. the jauntiness of them- especially the angular forms in the first two- gives a real energy to them that makes them unique and interesting. its like theyre walking. cool...

elaine: 20th Oct 2005 - 17:36 GMT

i just wish i could take photos there legitimately, and not have to hide the camera. it's a bit random but you get the drift. check out the clock with no hands

Catherine Penfold-Waxman: 20th Oct 2005 - 18:56 GMT

Where is St. Clements? And why aren't you allowed to take photos? Stolen images or not, these are really interesting shots.

elaine: 20th Oct 2005 - 19:28 GMT

thanks catherine. it is a mental hospital which i attend in my capacity as a mentalist. in the first place, i expect there is a legitimate issue to do with patients and privacy, but of course, i am totally not interested in taking pictures of people anyway. secondly, i think they are a little concerned about the fact that it is absolutely in ruins, and it really is scandalous that it should be in this state. these pictures are quite 'pretty' but for staff and patients alike to have to be in a building in this condition is not really on. if pictures showing exactly how messed up it is made the papers - well, i think this is their real concern.
anyway, when not too paranoid, and when there are less people about i sneak a pic or 2 or 3 (the empty lamp post)

Catherine Penfold-Waxman: 20th Oct 2005 - 20:38 GMT

Thanks for the info. I hope that someone does see the pictures and conditions improve for patients and staff alike. As a kid I lived down the road from a mental hospital in Kent. It was a glorious, Burtonesque Victorian building which I fantasised about getting into and having adventures (in an Enid Blyton kind of way). Seems strange to want to get into a hospital, but there you go.

joey: 21st Oct 2005 - 02:27 GMT

elaine- is this the place where the bells say 'oranges and lemons' ?

elaine: 21st Oct 2005 - 07:24 GMT

they do if you are mental enough... no, seriously - there is a church in the city of the same name and according to this website www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A696125 the bells used to ring when the citrus cargos arrived nearby
the hospital, some miles from there, was originally a work house built in 1849. i do not know if there is any link between them

elaine: 21st Oct 2005 - 07:43 GMT

catherine, the hospital is due to close within the year. the state of the hospitals, in general, in this bourough is absolutely disgusting, so the whole thing is being rethought. it seems to me that some of this building may be listed (ie you can't rip it down) but it is all in a dreadful state. historically empty hospitals have been left empty for years after closing, though if the whole site is not bulldozed then it will most likely become housing. i am ambivalent about renovation - it is nice when things get recycled and used, and the building is rescued in some way, but from a photographic standpoint it is way more interesting as it is now

Jamie: 21st Oct 2005 - 09:01 GMT

mentalist: men·tal·ist noun
one who is mental, or displays mentalistic tendencies

tenyen: 21st Oct 2005 - 17:44 GMT

so jaunty, yet very Arkham Asylum:
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/1/26/19439/5191

http://yen.spc.org/

jeeff: 21st Oct 2005 - 17:48 GMT

it's uk slang. one of the special subtopics at citynoise.

elaine: 22nd Oct 2005 - 09:08 GMT

using 'mentalist' is a way of owning being mental - like black people with the 'nigga' label - you can accommodate your alienation by taking a pejorative and turning it around, using it yourself so others can less easily hurt you. of course this doesn't stop you being prejudice yourself, against your own group or others, but it does take the sting out of being in a frequently despised group a tiny bit. i quite like 'mentalist', like 'migraineur' (which i also am) it sounds proactive and cretive even - though i would rather not be a migraine artist, difficult to rescue a positive out of it, really. being mental has been more.... interesting, if not always fun

Samantha: 17th Dec 2005 - 15:48 GMT

I like these photo's and wanted to take some of these buildings myself - not realising at the time that it was forbidden - anyway I never got round 2 it, but now that I know I am not allowed to i probably will! I also attend st.Clements as a "mentalist"..... not fun, I agree, but it is sometime possible 2 see the funny side. Somehow it is so apt and indicative of the general malaise in the place that the clock has no hands.

elaine: 17th Dec 2005 - 18:37 GMT

isn't it though? it just seems so totally appropriate - there is a face or maybe two where the time is just stuck, but you wouldn't be able to tell that in a photo - the no hands is more dramatic. hey, i wrote something you might like which is partly about going there www.swinney.org/journals/article.phtml?id=3879

Samantha: 3rd Jan 2006 - 13:46 GMT

"I was eventually able to read this brilliant little piece after repeated attempts..... at first the interference manager at the public librarium blopped it. Sorry I have only had 2 hours sleep. I will definitely be downloading this and any other material of yours I can digitalise to read at home when I am more suitable. Kind of scary, but totally amazing at the same time.

elaine: 3rd Jan 2006 - 14:20 GMT

::blushes:: ta!
i know the thing with the sleeplessness - i have totally been there, and sympathise

Samantha: 16th Jan 2006 - 18:08 GMT

One of the things I sometimes stay up all night doing is collage - recently i have covered every book and container on my desk in collage - the reason I am saying this of couse is in relation to another article of yours on that site- I recently tore up and threw away one of my more embarrasing diaries, but I kept some of the pieces for sentimental reasons - when I collage I use torn out bits of magazines, wrapping paper etc. Mentalists who collage .... but that is where the similiarity ends I think cos I am into messily medieval clutter and I imagine because of your liking for that japanes shop whose name sounds like grass that you are into minimalist, clean lines etc. I must say that I quite enjoy the grungyness of the old buildoings in these photos and would not really like to see them torn down - but then anything modern and new and shiny scares the .... out of me! Maybe the term mentalist is just a misnomer for people who are creative, highly sensitive individuals. You psychiatrist sounds nice, but I saw one in that place that looks, acts and sounds like alan partridge - how well adjusted is he!!!?

elaine: 13th Feb 2006 - 12:27 GMT

hahaha samantha, he sounds verrry scary. mine was meant to be temporary, but i am glad to say he is sticking around. if i had to see the bloke who he replaced i would have just not gone back.