The Main Hall with its parquet floors and oak-panelled walls. Note the fine timber roof structure with supporting brackets and tie beams.
An impressive feature, and a focal point of many of the early asylums were the main halls and these were where the majority of patient and staff activities took place. Chester's Main Hall was incorporated as part of the 1890's extention and was a magnificant building. It had seating for over 500 and was originally built as a communal dining room for patients, as well as doubling up as a useful, temporary sleeping area when the wards were being upgraded or decorated.
The kitchens were built to service the Main Hall dining room, and were situated behind the arches on the left of the picture. The kitchens consisted of great barn like rooms with high-pitched roofs into which the steam from the cauldrons of soup, or tea water ascended, before escaping through a vent in the centre. One prominent feature was the big coke-fired baking oven. This had a tray as large as a table tennis table! The front end had legs and wheels so that it could be pulled out from the wall into which the oven was built. It would be loaded with tins of dough, or cakes ready for baking.
The centre piece of the Main hall was the stage which had a proscenium arch with scarlet curtains which were opened and closed by an electric motor. There were two dressing rooms below the stage, but they were poorly lit and down steep stairways.
At first there were concerts and magic lantern shows, but later a projection room was set up at the back of the hall and the patients began to enjoy a weekly film show. They would be brought up from the wards under escort, with the men sitting on one side of the hall and the women on the other.
In 1971 the hall was destroyed by fire.>>>>>Next page