Broadmoor hospital seems a smoking wreck in dramatic aerial photographs
Broadmoor looks like a smoking wreck after a huge blaze broke out at the psychiatric hospital that caged some of the UK’s most dangerous criminals – including the Yorkshire Ripper and Ronnie Kray.
Dramatic aerial photos of the scene show smoke billowing out of the roof with firefighters telling locals to ‘keep their windows shut’.
The infamous psychiatric hospital was built in 1863 and was the country’s first asylum for the criminally insane.
It is now derelict after it closed in 2019 with patients and staff moving into the new £250m Broadmoor Hospital.
No injuries have been reported and the fire service have confirmed the blaze has posed no risk to patients and staff.
The Grade-II listed building in Crowthorne, Berkshire, went up in flames this morning with the fire and rescue team called to the scene at 9.37am.
Around 40 firefighters remain on the site and are expected to be there for ‘some time’ trying to extinguish the inferno that is emitting plumes of smoke so huge that they can be seen from passing planes.
Broadmoor was a high-security male only psychiatric hospital with a history of holding some of the country’s most notorious criminals, including Ronnie Kray, the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe, Charles Bronson and Robert Maudsley.
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An aerial view of the fire at Broadmoor psychiatric hospital where 40 fire fighters are tackling the flames
A huge fire has broken out at a psychiatric hospital where some of Britain’s worst criminals have been held
Broadmoor Hospital in Crowthorne, is currently in flames which are sending plumes of black smoke into the sky
Huge clouds of thick dark smoke can be seen coming from the building by on-lookers
A picture of the smoke cloud coming from Broadmoor taken by a MailOnline reader from a plane
Broadmoor is a high-security psychiatric hospital with a history of holding some of the country’s most notorious criminals, including Ronnie Kray, the Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, and Robert Maudsley
Here is a look at the location of Broadmoor Hospital on a map
A spokesperson for Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service said: ‘Around 40 firefighters remain on the scene of this fire. Crews are working to contain the fire using aerial ladder platforms and will remain on scene for some time while they deal with this incident.
‘Please stay clear of the area while emergency services deal with this incident and if you are in the area, please keep windows and doors closed at this time.’
A Thames Valley Police spokesperson said they are also attending the scene and assisting with road closures. They said that the blaze is restricted to the hospital site.
They added: ‘At this stage there is no impact to the wider road network.’
In an earlier statement, the fire and rescue team said: ‘At 9.37am on Saturday, May 25 we received reports of a fire at a derelict building at the old Broadmoor Hospital site on Chaplains Hill, Crowthorne.
‘The fire is not located at the current hospital site and there is no risk to patients and staff.
‘At this time, Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service crews from Crowthorne, Bracknell, Ascot, Wokingham, Wokingham Road, Whitley Wood, Caversham Road and Slough have currently been sent to the scene, together with crews from Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service and Surrey Fire and Rescue Service and two Officers.
‘Two Aerial Ladder Platforms and other specialist off road vehicles have also been sent to the scene.
‘Upon arrival, firefighters found a well-developed fire in a building at the old Broadmoor Hospital site.
‘There are no injuries reported at this time and all persons are accounted for. Crews are likely to remain on scene for some time while they deal with this incident.’
Ian Ball, the man who tried to kidnap Princess Anne in 1974, is currently held at Broadmoor
One of Lee Rigby’s killers, Michael Adebowale, is currently kept at Broadmoor where he has assaulted a staff member
Broadmoor holds the man who tried to kidnap Princess Anne in 1974, Ian Ball, and one of Lee Rigby’s killers, Michael Adebowale.
Ian Ball has been in Broadmoor ever since the incident, when he tried to kidnap the late Queen’s sister for a £2million ransom just yards from Buckingham Palace. When Ball tried to make Princess Anne get out of the car she was in she famously replied: ‘Not bloody likely.’
In 2019, one of Lee Rigby’s terrorist killers Michael Adebowale admitted to punching a healthcare assistant at Broadmoor whilst serving a 45-year term for the slaughter that shocked the nation in 2013. He was served a further eight months in jail to be added to the end of his sentence.
Paedophile and predator Jimmy Savile was given his own gold-plated set of keys to Broadmoor during his hushed campaign of prolific abuse, granting him access to the vulnerable mentally ill children that were patients at the time.
A former manager claimed that politicians and civil servants thought the disgraced entertainer was the ‘bee’s knees’ and appointed him to a task force to run the hospital in 1988. He was allowed to personally select managers and even had his own living quarters on site.
Located in Crowthorne, Berkshire, Broadmoor Hospital has housed dozens of sadistic killers since it opened its doors in 1863, including Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, gangster Ronnie Kray and rapist Robert Napper.
The institution for the criminally insane was built after the creation of the Criminal Lunatics Act 1860, also called the Broadmoor Act.
When the criminal lunatic asylum was opened it was for women only and held 95 female patients, with a block for male patients being added a year later. Now, it is a men’s only institution.
The asylum was established for the ‘safe custody and treatment’ of severely mentally ill criminals.
Violent Gangster Ronnie Kray, pictured, was a patient at Broadmoor until he died of a heart attack aged 61
Peter Sutcliffe, known as the Yorkshire Ripper, who killed 13 women and injured many more in the 1970s, was a patient at Broadmoor
Robert Maudsley, one of Britain’s most dangerous killers, was held inside the prison for the criminally insane
Charles Bronson, violent criminal and one of the UK’s longest-serving prisoners has spent almost 50 years behind bars, with some of those years spent at Broadmoor
When it first opened its doors in the Victorian age, there were no drugs or psychological treatments like what we are familiar with today. Instead, patients enjoyed a regime of rest and occupational therapy.
A few years ago, Broadmoor staff revealed what it’s really like to work at the high-security psychiatric hospital treating the criminally insane in Channel 5 documentary Broadmoor: Serial Killers & High Security.
From a patient torturing and killing another inmate to stopping obsessive ‘fans’ visiting high profile murderers with their children, mental health professionals opened up about their harrowing experiences.
Professor Pamela Taylor, who worked as head of medical services at the institution, revealed how women would get solicitors to fight for their right to visit sex offenders with their own children in tow, and sent so many love letters to Sutcliffe that he couldn’t answer them all.
Another staff member who featured on the show Dr Jackie Craissati MBE, admitted reading about the crimes committed by the patients she treated left her ‘overwhelmed’ and feeling ‘waves of fear’.
According to the NHS Broadmoor is a specialist psychiatric hospital which provides assessment, treatment and care in high security conditions for men aged 18 and above from London and the South of England.
It’s one of three high-security psychiatric hospitals in England and Wales and treats people with severe mental illness and personality disorders who are at high risk of harming themselves or others.
The NHS says that Broadmoor is ‘internationally renowned for its highly specialised care and research work’.
It is part of the West London NHS Trust which has been authorised by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to provide high secure men’s services. It’s currently rated as ‘Good’ by the Care Quality Commission.
