Abandoned London: Surrey County Asylum / Springfield Hospital, Wandsworth

We had the pleasure of being amongst the last people inside the female wing or Surrey County Asylum, Springfield Hospital, before it was handed over to be converted into apartments. It’s an imposing and beautiful building that holds many secrets and stories of those who lived within its walls.

History – 19th Century

The Asylum Act of 1808 encouraged Counties to build public asylums, but Counties were very slow to act, and it wasn’t until 1838 that Surrey Magistrates decided to take action. They purchased Springfield Park for the sum of £8,985 from Mr Henry Perkins who was a wealthy brewer. Perkins decided to sell up his farm land and move to Dover. The 97 acres were the perfect location for an asylum, the site was close to towns, but had clean country air and a fresh water supply.

In 1840 the construction of the buildings was complete, becoming only the 15th Asylum to be built after the Asylum Act of 1808. The cost of construction was £67,467 and furnishings cost £7,515. The red-bricked hospital could hold 350 beds and was built in an E shape. The hospital finally opened on 14th June 1841 and 299 patients were admitted on its opening day. These patients were mostly from other Asylums nearby.

The site quickly became overcrowded. In 1849 the hospital had to be extended at a £35,000 cost. Two new wings were added able to hold 400 patients. The Lunacy Act of 1890 separated children from adults and so an Annexe was built for 260 children.

History- 20th Century

During WWI the Asylum was renamed Springfield War Hospital and a neurological unit was established. The unit was separated from the main hospital by a high fence and it was for patients suffering from shell shock.

During WWII, with no bomb shelters available, the patients headed into the basements to shelter from the bombs dropping above. Thankfully the hospital buildings were not directly hit during the war but they did suffer from some blast damage. We were able to explore the basements ourselves on the tour which was utterly fascinating.

Closure

By the beginning of the 1990s, the changing attitudes towards mental health care meant that many large mental health institutions were closing and returning patients to ‘care in the community’. In 2009 plans for 1,200 new homes were submitted to the Council stating that the housing development would fund modern hospital buildings.

The heritage buildings are being converted into 300 apartments owned by City and County. A 32 acre public park and a school is also being built as part of the development.

Tour

The tour started at the front of the main entrance, on the mowed front lawn. There were families milling about and a Sainsburys delivery man with crates of groceries looking extremely lost. The front of the building is spectacular. The red brick design is breathtaking and it is understandable why a housing development company were keen to snap the place up for redevelopment.. The main facade proudly announces that it was built in 1840. The wing to the right of the main entrance has already been converted into flats and this was the old male block. To the left, the main building looks just like the right, but as you start to get closer you can see the preparations have begun for renovation.

We were walked around the grounds past the main block and through the community gardens to a tucked away entrance around the back. The gardens were surrounded by thick brick walls to keep the patients in and we were shown where the brick toilets were hidden amongst the greenery by the walls. These were for the patients who would spend their days in the gardens working and relaxing. Being able to go to the toilet outside meant not having to ask a staff member to let you back in. How very convenient!

Once we were inside, some parts felt very ordinary. The floors were covered in cheap but hard-wearing blue carpet. White paper-thin blinds covered the windows. There were still signs and names over doors from when the place closed a decade ago. Some rooms had some original features like sash windows with ornate lead-lined decorations. We were even allowed up on the roof which a lucky resident is going to be paying dear for. Being on the roof gave us the opportunity to see the scale of the site. We could enjoy views to the front of the main building with its manicured lawns but also see the chimney that had been left behind from the on-site crematorium. The asylum had everything on hand that it needed.

An added bonus of this tour that we didn’t expect was that the new layouts for the flats had already been decided and spray painted onto the floors. Many of the rooms in this hospital housed one patient in a bed, so to see how the developers were having to try to squeeze a bed, wardrobe space and sometimes gas or electric utilities in there was fascinating. Everyone commented that the flats seemed very small considering the eye-watering prices.

City & Country do have plans to have an archive as part of the development and we were able to explore many artefacts that were left behind as well as the documentation that the archivists have been gathering and researching themselves. As far as I am aware Surrey County Asylum is one of the few facilities where many pictures of the female patients were taken and documented. Dr Hugh Welch Diamond wanted to photograph the facial expressions of the women suffering from mental illness during their time at the Asylum. He photographed these women between 1848 and 1855.

Lastly, we donned our hard hats, turned on our torches and headed down the stairs and into the basements. These were where the patients had sheltered during air raids in WWII. Presumably due to boredom one patient had noted how many times they had to shelter here every month over the years. They did run out of space and so the ordering is not the most logical.

Thanks to the Hidden Histories team for the once in a lifetime tour of Surrey County Asylum before it is converted. I’m glad that the hospital is continuing to be used and not torn down thanks to its listed status. We’re unlikely to revisit this site as unfortunately the apartments are a bit out of our price range.

Last Updated on 21 January 2025 by Michael