West Park Hospital
Abandoned Surrey asylum with an extensive tunnel network where patients' ghosts still roam the underground passages.
West Park Hospital opened in 1924 as part of the Epsom Cluster, a collection of five large psychiatric hospitals built to ease overcrowding in London asylums. Designed for 2,000 patients, West Park operated for nearly 80 years before closing in 2003 as part of the nationwide deinstitutionalization movement. The sprawling Art Deco complex stands abandoned, its decaying wards and extensive underground tunnel system generating intense paranormal activity that has attracted ghost hunters from across Britain.
The hospital’s underground tunnel network is the focal point of paranormal investigation. These passages, built to transport patients, supplies, and bodies between buildings without public visibility, stretch for miles beneath the complex. Explorers report being followed by footsteps, hearing voices echoing off tiled walls, and seeing shadow figures darting between intersections. The mortuary tunnel is particularly active, with witnesses experiencing sudden temperature drops, the sensation of being touched or grabbed, and overwhelming feelings of dread that force rapid evacuation. EVP recordings from the tunnels have captured anguished screaming, pleading, and the sound of gurneys being wheeled through darkness.
Above ground, the abandoned wards display equally disturbing phenomena. The former electroshock therapy rooms trigger equipment malfunctions and intense psychological distress in investigators. Witnesses report the smell of ozone and burning, shadow figures strapped to beds that no longer exist, and the sound of electrical humming. The ballroom and social halls echo with phantom music and voices, while the chapel experiences spontaneous temperature fluctuations and the scent of incense. Security personnel employed during the hospital’s demolition phase reported numerous incidents of doors slamming, objects moving, and apparitions in windows of locked buildings. The administration block, one of the few structures still standing, is haunted by the apparition of a doctor in 1920s attire, endlessly making his rounds through wards that are long empty.