SYDNEY: An Australian businessman is hoping to turn a disused morgue which once served unfortunate psychiatric patients into a unique motel — offering autopsy slabs for weary heads. The morgue in Tasmania state has been idle for more than a decade, after the Willow Court historic colonial-era mental hospital was closed down. Owner Hadyn Pearce is now looking to turn it into accommodation.
“It’s still got its terrazzo slabs, and it’s still got its pull-out fridge, it’s a beautiful thing,” he said yesterday. Antiques dealer Pearce bought seven acres of the historic site several years ago, which contained six buildings that he is gradually restoring — one of which is the 1950s-era morgue that served patients and the wider community.
A previous owner is believed to have had plans to turn it into an ice-cream parlor and child minding center, but Pearce thinks visitors might be intrigued enough by features such as the stainless steel bathtub for washing cadavers to want to spend the night there.
