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Surrey County Asylum
Springfield, near Wandsworth
Nick Hervey says that the asylum was "in response to the growing expense of farming out the county's chronic insane to private licensed houses in the metropolis" and that " Sir Alexander Morison who was appointed as Visiting Physician before building commenced, carried out a survey of these patients".
"The site at Springfield Park, Wandsworth was bought from Henry Perkins, a wealthy brewer and partner in the firm of Barclay and Perkins, who had himself obtained the freehold from the 2nd Earl of Spencer"
1838 Building started
Architect: usually stated to be E Lapidge, but Nick says he was only one of the designers and that it "was done to the design of William Moseley, who was the County Surveyor for Middlesex and had previously been working on extensions at Hanwell". - Corridor form
The present "Main Building", built around a lawn and fountain area (See external link), appears to be the centre of the original corridor. Some of the corridors and main rooms (not all) have a pronounced slope, some running down towards the south-west of the building. One (at least) main corridor slopes towards the southeast. Does anyone know why this is?
opened 14.6. 1841 Cost: Total £85,366..19..1d. Comprised of Land: (97 acres) £8,985..9..5 - Buildings: £67,467..1..10 - Furnishings etc and preliminary expenses: £7,514..19.3 (1844 Report p.222)
Nick Hervey says that 299 patients were brought in on the day of opening, increasing to 385 in the first year. They included 172 from Peckham House, 51 from Hoxton and 54 from Bethnal Green. However, patients may have moved in from these asylums earlier as their movement was noted in a report for the year 1.6.1840 to 31.5.1841.
1.1.1844: 382 patients. All pauper.
Superintendent: S. Hill, Surgeon
1844 At the time of the 1844 Report, Surrey was the most modern county asylum. Its construction was generally approved of. "the house and galleries generally are warmed by the circulation of steam, and the introduction of hot air through apertures in the floor. The temperature is regulated by stop-cocks, and kept between 56 degrees and 58 degrees. There are open fires, with proper guards, in the several day rooms on the female side; and it is proposed to adopt them also in the male division". (1844 Report p.20)
1848-1858 Hugh Welch Diamond (1809-1886), photographic pioneer (External links: RSM, Getty, Leggat, Pearl Science and Society Picture Library), was Resident Superintendent of the Female Department. See Lutwidge 1853 and Millar 1853. He appears to have left to set up his own, high class, lunatic asylum in Twickenham
Until about 1857, Alexander Morison, Charles Snape and Hugh W. Diamond were the medical officers connected with Surrey Asylum
About 1860 John Meyer appointed Resident Physician. William Orange was Assistant Medical Officer
1863 John Meyer and William Orange move to Broadmoor. James Strange Biggs became Resident Physician
1881 Census: James Strange Biggs, physician, aged 53, was asylum head
1889 to 1912 Hugh Gardiner Hill medical superintendent. His son, Harold, a family historian, was very proud of the way his father carried on Robert Gardiner Hill's non-restraint work at Springfield. The graves of Hugh and his wife Rosie are in the Magdalen Road Cemetery not far from Springfield
Transferred to Middlesex County Council after the 1888 Local Government Act, when it was known first as Wandsworth Asylum.
From about 1918 known as Springfield Asylum.
A detached annexe for 260 "low-grade mental defectives, 180 children and 80 adults" was built under the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act.
April 1916 A detached block of the main asylum used as Springfield War Hospital for severe or protracted cases
for the care and treatment of soldiers and pensioners suffering from neurasthenia or loss of mental balance (Hansard 12.4.1920)
1919 Post Office Directory: Middlesex County. Beechcroft Road, Upper Tooting, SW17 and Garrat Green, Burntwood Lane, Tooting SW17. Reginald Worth MB medical superintendent; Gayton Warwick Smith, MD assistant medical officer; Rev William Parkinson Iddeson, MA, chaplain; Thomas W. Beale, clerk to the asylum.
1926 Nurses were instructed to show kindness and forbearance with "example being better than precept" (Regulations and Orders of Springfield Mental Hospital, London). (external link)
In 1939 "Springfield (Mental) Hospital" had 2,000 patients, 83 acres of farm land and 14 acres of garden. There was close cooperation between Springfield and Westminster Hospital.
1956: 2,069 patients, 21% aged 65 or over. The Hospital's death rate was 10.94% (Lost Hospitals)
By the end of the 1950s the Hospital had been almost surrounded by urban development. During the 1960s the number of in-patients began to fall, (Lost Hospitals)
Springfield shown in a 1979 Directory as having 1,124 beds 31.12.1977.
Springfield Hospital, Glenburne Road, London, SW17 7DJ
Frank Bangay's 1985 poem "Food and Shelter" (Naked Songs and Rhythms of Hope pages 104-106) relates to experiences in 1976 to 1978 and "the revolving door system that we can get caught up in once we enter the psychiatric system". The first three verses are:
So strange it is in this world today
The old people walk up and down with the shakes
It's part of their illness it is said
But there is a different explanation
They have been caught in an oppressive situation.
Dumped in Victorian institutions so long ago
Through situations in living hat we know and ignore,
But psychiatric drugs are no solution to human needs
They just leave people to pace corridors
Broken and defeated.
All we needed was food
All we needed was shelter
A roof above our head in hostile weather
A sanctuary to go to when times got tough
No, not these dark institutions
Tell me,
Do you know the true meaning
Of the word 'asylum?'
1977 and 1978 Hospital discos dancing to The Ramones on ECT and lobotomy.
Spring 1978 Springfield Words. A magazine produced in Springfield Hospital, Tooting, South London by Kieran Brown, an Occupational Therapist. Published Frank Bangay's poem "Spring is Rising" (written 1976). Frank was a patient at the time and helped Kieran with the magazine. In 1979 Frank helped to organise a half-hour of poetry and songs based round life in Springfield Hospital, featuring Kieran, Frank and Dave Dorling. Dave was a patient who died in 1981. The event was staged at the Troubadour and was well received. (Naked Songs and Rhythms of Hope p.145)
1990 Sarah Wheeler admitted
1994 Springfield Hospital became part of the Pathfinder Mental Health Services NHS Trust.
7.5.1998 "Trust guilty of abuse of power"
1999 Pathfinder Mental Health Services NHS Trust changed its name to the South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust. (Lost Hospitals of London)
Springfield Hospital (external link), 61 Glenburnie Road, London, SW17 7DJ.
Autumn 2002: Reported still open, or closed and empty (street map - multimap.
Simon Cornwall: Was to close but parts have remained opened.
2005 Mental health research at St George's University of London. Note that South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust provides "education, training and research" in partnership with St George's University, Kingston University, South Bank University, King's College, University of Surrey, Tavistock Institute and Brunel University. (source)
30.1.2006: from David Gardiner-Hill "It is definitely open and a Mental Health Trust associated with Georges Hospital Trust. The Gardiner Hill Unit has unfortunately changed its name though signs to it still litter Tooting/Wandsworth!! I have visited on open day, and seen the old history exhibition in the mortuary. The superintendent's house Hugh Gardiner Hill lived in is now offices overlooking the golf course in the grounds, but I have recognisable photos of the drive and gardens of this house when Hugh's children were babies and a lovely one of his wife in a 1906 car, also a record of speeding ticket from a newspaper. Speeding was newsworthy".
"South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust was formed in 1994. The Trust has, for over 160 years, provided mental health services. The Trust headquarters are at Springfield University Hospital in Tooting" (source)
Springfield University Hospital
The following image is from the internet 12.1.2006.
The following material is dated 13.10.2007
From the mid-1980s, Springfield Hospital (main building, above), now the Trust's headquarters, served only people from Wandsworth and Merton. Today, the Trust operates from 89 locations and is responsible for providing complete mental health and social care services to the communities of Kingston, Merton, Richmond, Sutton and Wandsworth, and more specialist services to people throughout the United Kingdom.
"The hospital became part of the NHS in 1948 and the site continued to be developed up to 2005 when the Phoenix Unit (providing rehabilitation services) opened." A masterplan for the site was approved by the Trust Board in 2006, leading to the opening of the Wandsworth Recovery Centre in 2009, the first of a new generation of acute in-patient buildings. When Wandsworth Planning Committee gave consent for this building, it was made clear that no further consents would be granted on the Springfield Hospital site until there was outline consent for the redevelopment of the entire site." A planning application was submitted, but refused in March 2009. Following a period of public engagement, the Trust developed an alternative plan which sought to address the reasons given for refusal of its first application. Wandsworth Council Officers recommended approving the plan, but it was refused in December 2010.
Regeneration news 2009
June 2010 New Proposals offline pdf
18.7.2011 Archive Springfield Regeneration Programme
13.4.2012 First internet archive of The history of Springfield University Hospital - The argument that "mental health services have been provided at Springfield Hospital since 1841" was being used as a starting point for the necessity of allowing a re-development plan.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20120404154510/http://www.swlstg-tr.nhs.uk/about-us/our_history/]
Springfield regeneration news [To "Trust appeal upheld: June 2012"]
later Surrey public asylums
later Surrey County Asylums
SW17 asylums: Springfield, Tooting Bec, Fountain
http://studymore.org.uk/4_13_TA.HTM#Surrey
NB, also a very substantial chronology and bibliography:
http://studymore.org.uk/7.HTM#Scull,%20MacKenzie%20and%20Hervey%201996
[saved as Andrew-Roberts-Chronological-and-alphabetical-bibliographies-of-lunacy.pdf]Back to the top of this page . . .