A collection of derelict buildings in an abandoned British village have gone viral on TikTok after an urban explorer videoed their experience in Bangour Village.
RossToTheMax shared footage on Sunday of the abandoned village near Edinburgh in West Lothian, where buildings are centred around a general hospital that at one time housed hundreds of patients and their carers.
However, anyone visiting the derelict site nowadays is unlikely to see another person at the long-deserted village.
The village was established in 1902 when a “new kind” of mental hospital was proposed after the Edinburgh District Lunacy Board purchased the site.
Plans for a series of villas for living in aimed to provide a more positive mental health patient experience than other asylums of the time.
A farm would provide patients with the chance to work, while it was hoped that they would benefit from the rural location and therapies offered.
Edinburgh Live reports that local architect Hippolyte Blanch designed the buildings, with 13 of the 32 buildings being granted category-A listed status.
It was only a few years after opening that the First World War changed the village’s use, with temporary accommodation for wounded servicemen becoming more crucial.
When the Second World War began, Bangour became the Edinburgh War Hospital for a while.
The village started to decline in the late 1980s and, after St John’s Hospital in Livingston opened in 1989, the former site soon closed and was subsequently demolished.
As approaches to mental health changed and traditional mental hospitals began closing down, patients continued leaving throughout the 1990s, with the last departing in 2004.
Alongside the video, RossToTheMax wrote: “We visited the abandoned Bangour Village outside of Edinburgh.
“Work began in 1904, and it opened in 1906. There were 32 buildings, including a shop and a train station.
“The villas were provided for the hospital patients and nurses, so they could live on site. It’s soon to be demolished, and turned into houses and a school.”
In 2005 the site was used as the location for the film The Jacket starring Keira Knightley and Adrian Brody - before becoming the empty and derelict space it is now.
In July of last year, it was announced that West Lothian Council granted permission for a new development at Bangour Village, which will boast over 900 homes, a primary school, shops and leisure facilities.
