Newsham Park Hospital has opened its very creepy doors for a historian tour and stay with the building's caretaker deep into the night, which is a prelude to Newsham Scream Park this Halloween.
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00:00Newsham Park Seaman's Orphanage, which later became Newsham Park Hospital, was
00:05built in 1874, so it's actually 150 years old this year. Steeped in folklore, the
00:11Victorian Grade II listed building certainly has a chill about it. Whether
00:16you believe in the paranormal or not, narrow passages lead into shadowy
00:20basements and staircases descend into darkness, where dreary spaces link to
00:26the past, and a chill lingers in each compressed space. It's quite a spooky
00:30building in its own right. It's built in the Gothic style by Alfred Waterhouse. It
00:35was a Liverpool-born architect. He also did Liverpool University, Manchester
00:40Town Hall, and the thing about the Gothic style is that it is a spooky style. It's
00:45full of pointy bits and creepy arches and things. Newsham Scream Park is back
00:49with four new scare experiences, which will wind through the building's
00:53claustrophobic corridors and dilapidated dormitories. This Halloween
00:57season, previously hidden parts of the building will be used for the first time.
01:01Atmosphere are one of Europe's biggest scare attraction companies and have
01:06designed each blood-curdling experience. This is going to be the home of the
01:10Newsham Scream Park Halloween attraction that's going to be on between October
01:15and November, running right the way through that month, and it is going to be
01:20even spookier then. Further new additions for 2024 include the Horror Selfie
01:24Museum, Street Entertainment, Food Court, Stage Acts and Live Music Plus,
01:29tarot card readers, mystics, fortune tellers and more. The building itself is
01:34intrinsically spooky. Just being here without any sort of, you know, actors or
01:39the things you'd expect from a scare attraction is scary enough. We've just
01:43spent an hour walking around the building and there's been plenty of
01:46places where the temperatures dropped, things have been, shadows have been
01:50seen in the corner, noises have been heard echoing around the halls. It's a
01:53very atmospheric place. It was built to look after the children of sailors who
01:57were lost at sea. During that time, sea travel was extremely dangerous. Many
02:02families, especially in Liverpool, being a big seafaring port, often relied on
02:07the money that was brought in by the husband who often worked at sea. As
02:11sailors didn't get paid until they reached port, if they were lost at sea,
02:14it left families destitute. They didn't have enough money to look after their
02:18children. So a place like this was built in order to look after them. This was
02:22the first one in Liverpool and was paid for by the wealthy merchants of the
02:25city. A man by the name of James Beasley said, I will put £500 in and if other
02:31people put £500, then we'll set up an orphanage. And that is what they did. It
02:37was in use as an orphanage from 1874 until 1949. Newsham Park Hospital opened
02:43its doors in 1954. In 1992, with the closure of Rainhill Lunatic Asylum, its
02:49patients were moved to Newsham Park Hospital's wheelchairs, trolleys and
02:52machinery from decades gone by, a strewn around whilst echoes linger
02:56throughout the eerie building.