Porirua hospital museum visit...

'Porirua', like Carrington, Tokenui, Kingseat, is still associated with the stigma of mental illness. Our guide through the museum gave us plenty of examples from his long and enthusiastic memories of this place.
The only remaining original building from the old Porirua Mental Asylum is the remains of 'F' block which was where all the 'hopeless' cases were put. Built much earlier than Kingseat (c1914) and also because of it's purpose, this was much cruder architecture but had some staged rooms with old artifacts which was what I was after.
Our guide had especially opened the museum for me that day and this is obviously his passion, sharing memories of the old hospital and its history. We couldn't quite figure out (and didn't want to ask) what his association was but in the end his stories were too detailed not to have been either a doctor or nurse at the hospital...or perhaps a close association with a patient there.

Some interesting details:

• double and triple locking was not quite what we thought
• ECT treatment machines
• pumice lining
• the bath
• the secure bedroom peep holes, similar to Carrington