History
The hospital opened as the Surrey County Pauper Lunatic Asylum in 1840. The original building was a grand symmetrical red brick Tudor-style composition enclosing a large courtyard, built to the designs of Edward Lapidge, the county surveyor. A purpose-built chapel was added in 1881. It came under the management of Middlesex County Council in 1888 and was re-named the Wandsworth Asylum.
During the First World War it became the Springfield War Hospital and, after the war, it became the Springfield Mental Hospital. A new infirmary block to treat mentally ill patients who were also physically ill opened in July 1932. During the Second World War a serious bout of dysentery broke out at the hospital. It joined the National Health Service in 1948.
It was one of the hospitals investigated in 1967 as a result of the publication of Barbara Robb's book "Sans Everything". The committee found that at least two of the charge nurses showed themselves prone to outbursts of ill-temper which expressed itself in violence. In 2004 John Barrett, a paranoid schizophrenic, walked out of the hospital and stabbed Dennis Finnegan, a cyclist, to death.
At its heyday the hospital had 2,000 patients but is now reduced to under 300 inpatients. Much of the original hospital building is now disused, and there are plans to convert this to a residential development, "Springfield Village". Proceeds are being used to create new state of the art mental health centres at Springfield and at Tolworth Hospital in Surbiton. The new hospital at Springfield opened in November 2019, ending 179 years of history.
The explore
Just when all seems lost on the asylum front, a beauty surfaces. From long disused wards to recently closed, Springfield has much to offer. With parts of the main building still in use as the trust’s headquarters and numerous semi derelict buildings littering the grounds there is lots more to come.
Explored in the fine company of Olkka.
1.
2. A bit of a spring clean took place before this photo.
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13. I was also trying not to loose my head in this room (full of hospital archives and memorabilia dating back to it’s opening), as it all desperately needs a new home and fast!!
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17. Springfield is not one for corridors, the one behind the kitchens practically the longest.
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21. Note the decorative bay window in a recreation room.
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Thanks for looking!
The hospital opened as the Surrey County Pauper Lunatic Asylum in 1840. The original building was a grand symmetrical red brick Tudor-style composition enclosing a large courtyard, built to the designs of Edward Lapidge, the county surveyor. A purpose-built chapel was added in 1881. It came under the management of Middlesex County Council in 1888 and was re-named the Wandsworth Asylum.
During the First World War it became the Springfield War Hospital and, after the war, it became the Springfield Mental Hospital. A new infirmary block to treat mentally ill patients who were also physically ill opened in July 1932. During the Second World War a serious bout of dysentery broke out at the hospital. It joined the National Health Service in 1948.
It was one of the hospitals investigated in 1967 as a result of the publication of Barbara Robb's book "Sans Everything". The committee found that at least two of the charge nurses showed themselves prone to outbursts of ill-temper which expressed itself in violence. In 2004 John Barrett, a paranoid schizophrenic, walked out of the hospital and stabbed Dennis Finnegan, a cyclist, to death.
At its heyday the hospital had 2,000 patients but is now reduced to under 300 inpatients. Much of the original hospital building is now disused, and there are plans to convert this to a residential development, "Springfield Village". Proceeds are being used to create new state of the art mental health centres at Springfield and at Tolworth Hospital in Surbiton. The new hospital at Springfield opened in November 2019, ending 179 years of history.
The explore
Just when all seems lost on the asylum front, a beauty surfaces. From long disused wards to recently closed, Springfield has much to offer. With parts of the main building still in use as the trust’s headquarters and numerous semi derelict buildings littering the grounds there is lots more to come.
Explored in the fine company of Olkka.
1.
2. A bit of a spring clean took place before this photo.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13. I was also trying not to loose my head in this room (full of hospital archives and memorabilia dating back to it’s opening), as it all desperately needs a new home and fast!!
14.
15.
16.
17. Springfield is not one for corridors, the one behind the kitchens practically the longest.
18.
19.
20.
21. Note the decorative bay window in a recreation room.
22.
23.
24.
25.
Thanks for looking!
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