For almost 90 years Z Ward was the home to those classified as South Australia's criminally insane.

Water damage is visible in many areas of Z Ward, with a large patch visible on this wall of the large Day Room. (ABC Adelaide: Brett Williamson)

The rear garden of Z Ward, now lush with grass and tree growth. (ABC Adelaide: Brett Williamson)

For 88 years the building housed those that were defined as criminally insane, from murderers and rapists to those with severe mental health issues. (ABC Adelaide: Brett Williamson)

The polychromatic brick work has provided the 1885 building with a lasting, iconic appearance. (ABC Adelaide: Brett Williamson)

Ha-ha walls were a feature of Z Ward. A simple way to provide the appearance of a standard sized wall from a distance, with a trench before the wall doubled its size. The technique used by European farmers to provide high fences for cattle without creating eyesores on the landscape was adapted for Glenside Hospital. (ABC Adelaide: Brett Williamson)

Gouges in the softer, sandstone corner bricks of the rear yard were said to have been made by patients who aimlessly walked the exterior of the building, dragging their fingers along the bricks, to pass their time outside. (ABC Adelaide: Brett Williamson)

A larger, corner cell that may have doubled as staff accomodation in Z Ward. (ABC Adelaide: Brett Williamson)

A standard cell for inmates of Z Ward, Adelaide's one-time asylum for the criminally insane. (ABC Adelaide: Brett Williamson)

Looking through an eastern window of Z Ward, the old Glenside Administration building which now houses the SA Film Corporation can be seen. (ABC Adelaide: Brett Williamson)

A now bleak corner of the Z Ward Day Room shows the intricate steel barred windows and airflow vents that allowed those behind the walls to gain some kind of feeling of what life was like outside. (ABC Adelaide: Brett Williamson)

The now empty hallway along the top floor of Z Ward, with cell doors open. The facilities could hold approximately 40 patients, with criminally insane patients fenced off from the main population. The hallway floors were originally covered in large slate tiles. Hallways were used as eating areas, with tables and secured chairs filling the top floor hallway, and a billiard table once used in the ground floor space. (ABC Adelaide: Brett Williamson)

This steel stair case was the only way that patients and staff could travel from the ground to first floor of the main building. (ABC Adelaide: Brett Williamson)

The bends in the steel bars provide more questions than answers. (ABC Adelaide: Brett Williamson)

Welcome to Z Ward. Once past the iron fence gates and the external building doors and iron gates, patients were greeted with a third set of large iron gates and a firm impression that there would be no escape. (ABC Adelaide: Brett Williamson)

The last view many a patient would see after being admitted into Z Ward, Adelaide's home for 'criminal mental defectives'. (ABC Adelaide: Brett Williamson)

Opened in 1888, Z Ward was called L Ward until 1932, but when the phonetic link to 'Hell Ward' was discovered the name was changed to Z Ward. (ABC Adelaide: Brett Williamson)

Built in 1885, the first patients were placed in Z Ward in 1887.

The facility catered for up to 40 patients at a time, many simply left their to see out their natural lives due to no other facilities able to accomodate them.

It is also rumoured that a guard also drew his last breath within the walls due to an inmate delivering a fatal blow to the guard's neck with a shovel.

The ward was closed in 1973, with inmates being relocated to other jails around the state.

Threatened with demolition, a local group interested in the history of the building protested the planned destruction and were able to preserve the complex.

At one stage it was thought that the complex could be turned into a medical museum featuring equipment used in the facilites.

Up until recently the premises were used to store the core samples and files of the Department of Mining.

Z Ward was included in a 2.138ha parcel of land placed for sale by the State Government in June 2014.

The building has been listed on State and National History Trust lists.