AN EERIE derelict mental hospital has been left to rot for over 40 years – despite being valued at a whopping £7 million.
Crumbling Great Barr Hall was last used as a psychiatric hospital, but it is now only occupied by graffiti artists and vandals.
Despite it’s Grade II listed status, taggers have gone wild in spraying everything in sight.
The once magnificent mansion is now covered in grime and graffiti – including a now-barely legible danger sign warning of barbed wire ahead.
The spooky site has become a stomping ground for local louts, the only sign of life at the 18th century building since the 1970s.
The Birmingham estate was last operated as St Margaret’s Mental Hospital after being reconstructed at the end of World War l.
Known to locals as ‘Maggies’, the hospital shut down in the late 1970s and has been rotting away ever since.
Despite it’s squalid state, the building and its land still appear to be on the market for a whopping £7 million.
Sitting on a fortune, plans were introduced to restore the iconic landmark and build homes on its Green Belt.
But the proposal fell through due to local outrage, with hundreds of residents opposed to the plans.
A Walsall councillor revealed how he had never seen “so many reasons for refusal” when the plans were discussed.
The roofless site, which has been surrounded by scaffolding for years, has a rich history and was once the home of aristocrats and millionaires.
It was once owned by the high-society Scott family, but facing financial problems, was later leased out to arms manufacturer Samuel Galton.
For some years the hall became a place of meeting for the Lunar Society – a group of free thinking scientists and industrialists.
Around the time of when the society fell apart, the home was inherited by Sir Francis Scott, with his wife remaining in the hall until her death in the early 1900s.
Many hope that Great Barr Hall will eventually receive the renovation it’s rich history deserves.
But, for now, it remains a piece of history frozen in time.
