BARROW GURNEY

The parish of Barrow Gurney, Somerset, UK, wasn’t the place you’d expect people to go to see artworks. But the town’s abandoned psychiatric facility – first saved from demolition when it was found to be a rooting place for dozen of bat species, but then demolished in late 2014 – became JPS’s venue for horror movie tributes.

Produced using spraypaint and handcut stencils, his life-size paintings of horror icons such as Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees turned the Grounds of the decaying hospital into a gallery of fascinating artwork.

The Barrow Hospital was built in 1934 to resolve the problem of overcrowding in the nearby City of Bristol mental hospital . Planned as an expansive hospital, with building work starting in 1934, the hospital was only half finished when it opened to patients in 1939 and due the beginning of the second World war it was never completed.  

"During the project I was told a lot of horrific stories about the place, people claim a lot of human experiments have taken place in Barrow Gurney. It was the perfect setting for horror type work“

In the 60’s the facility’s population peaked at 453 patients but numbers began to fall rapidly as more provision was made for care at home. In the 1970‘s there were only about 200 patients and the number further declined.

A national survey of the NHS in 2005 led to the closure of Barrow hospital a year later . It had particular poor standards of hygiene with „an unacceptably dirty environment“ and was quickly known as the „dirtiest hospital in the UK“. 

„I explored Barrow alone around 7 years after it closed – I took in the creepyness and horror of the present and the past. I noticed the lack of the usual amount of tags most abandoned buildings bear- so in my eyes the walls were a fresh canvas.“

In just a few months , JPS created over 30 breathtaking artworks and made the place a popular spot for art lovers and photographers until it was demolished in 2014.

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In just a few months, JPS created  over 30 breathtaking artworks and made the place a popular spot for art lovers and photographers until it was demolished in 2014.

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