Brookwood Hospital
Encyclopedia
Woking
Woking is a large town and civil parish that shares its name with the surrounding local government district, located in the west of Surrey, UK. It is part of the Greater London Urban Area and the London commuter belt, with frequent trains and a journey time of 24 minutes to Waterloo station....
in Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, was established in 1867 by Surrey Quarter Sessions as the second County Asylum, the first being Springfield Asylum
Springfield Hospital
Springfield University Hospital is a psychiatric hospital in Tooting, South London and also the headquarters of the South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust....
in Tooting
Tooting
Tooting is a district in south London, England, located in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is situated south south-west of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-History:...
. A third asylum followed in 1882 at Cane Hill
Cane Hill
Cane Hill was a psychiatric hospital in Coulsdon in the London Borough of Croydon. Built to care for patients in the eastern part of Surrey, remote from the Springfield and Brookwood Asylums, it opened in 1882 as the Third Surrey County Lunatic Asylum. Following a gradual winding down of...
in Coulsdon in the eastern part of the county.
Designed by architect Charles Henry Howell
Charles Henry Howell
Charles Henry Howell FRIBA was the principal architect of lunatic asylums in England during much of the Victorian era.Based in London and a partner in the firm Howell & Brooks, Howell designed asylums at Cane Hill , East Riding at Beverley , Moulsford, near Wallingford , Brookwood , Cholsey...
, the principal asylum architect in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and architect to the Lunacy Commissioners and Surrey County Surveyor from 1860–1893, the 'Brookwood Asylum', as it was originally known, was renamed 'Brookwood Hospital' in 1919.
From its opening on 17 June, 1867 until its closure in 1994, Brookwood Hospital was the leading mental hospital for the western half of Surrey, occupying a large site at Knaphill, near Brookwood
Brookwood, Surrey
Brookwood is a village in Surrey, located about 5 km west of Woking, in a semi-rural location. It lies on the western border of the Woking Borough ....
. The hospital had a dairy farm, a cobbler's workshop
Shoemaking
Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand. Traditional handicraft shoemaking has now been largely superseded in volume of shoes produced by industrial mass production of footwear, but not necessarily in quality, attention to detail, or...
, a large ballroom
Ballroom
A ballroom is a large room inside a building, the designated purpose of which is holding formal dances called balls. Traditionally, most balls were held in private residences; many mansions contain one or more ballrooms...
, and had its own fire brigade, gasworks and sewage farm. It employed the services of many local businesses.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
the Hospital served as an emergency war hospital.
Since its closure in 1994 the land has been sold off for development for housing, and the Hospital's annexe block, which is listed, has been converted into luxury apartments. Several of the new residential roads were named after the old hospital wards. The hospital's chapel is now a Buddhist
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
temple and the former mortuary now provides living accommodation for the temple's monks.
Brookwood Hospital Archive
In 2002 a grant from the Wellcome TrustWellcome Trust
The Wellcome Trust was established in 1936 as an independent charity funding research to improve human and animal health. With an endowment of around £13.9 billion, it is the United Kingdom's largest non-governmental source of funds for biomedical research...
's Research Resources in Medical History grant scheme allowed a comprehensive catalogue of the historic archive of Brookwood Hospital to be made. This catalogue has made the archive available to researchers as a source for medical, social and local historians.
The preserved archive is very extensive and provides a detailed overview of the day to day running of Brookwood Hospital and of the medical care provided to its patients throughout its history. The records also show how the hospital operated as a self-contained community, employing patients with skills in cooking, cleaning and gardening, providing training workshops, a 12 acres (48,562.3 m²) farm which provided food for both the Hospital and for sale, and details of the entertainment provided for the residents.