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Page last updated at 16:33 GMT, Thursday, 10 December 2009

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In Pictures: The hidden art of Hellingly Hospital

The words 'Insanity is Fun' painted on the wall of the former Hellingly Hospital

Once Hellingly Hospital was home to 1000 patients. It closed in 1994. Since then it has attracted graffiti artists and others eager to record its gradual decline.

Photographer John Fox is one local man who has been in to record the sights of Hellingly as it undergoes a slow decay.

An ariel image of the former Hellingly Hospital

The Hospital was built in 1902 as the East Sussex Asylum, it had a recreational hall, a cricket pitch and homes for workers.

A man in a bath pointing at the nude in a humorous way

John's photographs record the angry, the humorous and the beautiful images left by anonymous artists through the years.

A room with a glimpse of a nude painted on the wall of a bathroom

The painters have clearly thought carefully about how the relationship of their work to the building around it.

A composite image showing an old photograph with the previous image superimposed onto it.

This is how that same view looked back in the hospital's heyday.

A large hall with a bowed ceiling at Hellingly Hospital

This is the ballroom; a grand hall with a purpose that contrasts starkly with some of the actual functions of Hellingly, where women who had children out of wedlock were incarcerated.

Many of the art works are 'site-specific' - they have a relationship with the surface on which they are painted.

But some of the hospital's own fragile, decaying spaces have a presence which easily matches the work produced by 'intruder artists'.

An exterior shot of Hellingly with a sign saying 'Private Land'

Now Hellingly is a few weeks away from redevelopment. Some buildings will be retained but others will be demolished. To contact John Fox, email johnfoxphotos@yahoo.co.uk.

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