![Friern Hospital 23](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Friern_Hospital_23.jpg)
Friern Hospital (formerly Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum) was a
psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociative ...
in the parish of
Friern Barnet
Friern Barnet is a suburban area within the London Borough of Barnet, north of Charing Cross. Its centre is formed by the busy intersection of Colney Hatch Lane (running north and south), Woodhouse Road (taking westbound traffic towards North Fi ...
close to a crossroads which had a
hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
known as
Colney Hatch
Colney Hatch () is the historical name for a small district within the London Borough of Barnet in London, England. Colney Hatch refers to a loosely defined area centred on the northern end of Colney Hatch Lane (B550), which connects Friern ...
. In 1965, it became part of the
London Borough of Barnet
The London Borough of Barnet () is a suburban London boroughs, London borough in North London. The borough was formed in 1965 from parts of the ceremonial counties of Middlesex and Hertfordshire. It forms part of Outer London and is the largest ...
and in the early 21st century was converted to residential housing as Princess Park Manor and Friern Village. The hospital was built as the Second Middlesex County Asylum and was in operation from 1851 to 1993. After the
County of London
The County of London was a county of England from 1889 to 1965, corresponding to the area known today as Inner London. It was created as part of the general introduction of elected county government in England, by way of the Local Government A ...
was created in 1889 it continued to serve much of Middlesex and of the newer county, London. During much of this time its smaller prototype
Hanwell Asylum
St Bernard's Hospital, also known as Hanwell Insane Asylum and the Hanwell Pauper and Lunatic Asylum, was an asylum built for the pauper insane, opening as the First Middlesex County Asylum in 1831. Some of the original buildings are now part of ...
also operated.
At its height, Colney Hatch was home to 2,500
mental patient
A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...
s and had the longest corridor in Britain (It would take a visitor more than two hours to walk the wards).
For much of the 20th century, its name was synonymous among Londoners with any
mental institution
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociative ...
.
The asylum with its surrounding fields, gardens and recreation grounds adjoined Friern Barnet Road and is shown on the
Ordnance Survey
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map of 1868–1883, which labels the nascent settlement of
New Southgate
New Southgate is a residential suburb straddling three Outer London Boroughs: a small part of the east of Barnet, a south-west corner of Enfield and in loosest definitions, based on nearest railway stations, a small northern corner of Haringey i ...
under a popular developers' name ''Colney Hatch Park''. Today that larger community is the core area of New Southgate in the
London Borough of Enfield
The London Borough of Enfield () is a London boroughs, London borough in North London. It borders the London boroughs of London Borough of Barnet, Barnet to the west, London Borough of Haringey, Haringey to the south, and London Borough of Walt ...
. The map shows the large asylum which resembled closely the new settlement in size. Friern Barnet is today used fairly interchangeably with New Southgate for the area west of the
Great Northern Railwaya short path from the asylum led to the station built to serve it,
New Southgate railway station
New Southgate railway station is on the boundary of the London Borough of Barnet and the London Borough of Enfield in north London, in Travelcard Zone 4. It is down the line from .
The station, and all trains serving it, have been operated by ...
, which moved a short distance and remains. The station had five earlier names: the changes demonstrate a gradual erasure of the small place name "Colney Hatch" from the public psyche and in general public use.
Colney Hatch
Colney Hatch () is the historical name for a small district within the London Borough of Barnet in London, England. Colney Hatch refers to a loosely defined area centred on the northern end of Colney Hatch Lane (B550), which connects Friern ...
was the southern hamlet, centred on a crossroads, of the medieval parish of Friern Barnet which stretched north north-west and was half as wide as long. The very rural parish until the late 19th century had one other main population centre, equally a hamlet,
Whetstone.
History
Early history
The building of the asylum was commissioned by the Middlesex Court of Magistrates, as the Second Middlesex County Asylum. The site was the former Hollick Wood, Colney Hatch. The architect was
Samuel Daukes
Samuel Whitfield Daukes (1811–1880) was an English architect, based in Gloucester and London.
Family background
Daukes was born in London in 1811, the son of Samuel Whitfield Daukes, a businessman with coal mining and brewery interests, who b ...
, whose
Italianate
The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...
corridor-plan design was based on the advice of
John Conolly
John Conolly (27 May 1794 – 5 March 1866) was an English psychiatrist. He published the volume ''Indications of Insanity'' in 1830. In 1839, he was appointed resident physician to the Middlesex County Asylum where he introduced the princip ...
, the superintendent of the First Middlesex County Asylum. The foundation stone was laid by the
Prince Consort in 1849, and the building was completed in November 1850. The cost of building had been estimated at £150,000, but the final cost actually proved to be £300,000, making it the most expensive asylum ever built, at £240 per bed. The estate had its own water supply, a chapel, cemetery and a 75-acre farm estate.
It also had a gasworks, brewery, and an aviary where canaries were bred.
![Colney Hatch, lunatic asylum](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Colney_Hatch%2C_lunatic_asylum._Wellcome_L0000641.jpg)
The asylum was opened on 17 July 1851 by Prince Albert
with William Charles Hood (1824–1870) being its first medical superintendent. Its Chairman from 1862 to 1890 was
Sir William Henry Wyatt.
![Clock and Watchmaker’s Asylum, Colney Hatch - circa 1855 - Anon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Clock_and_Watchmaker%E2%80%99s_Asylum%2C_Colney_Hatch_-_circa_1855_-_Anon.jpg)
In 1857 extensions were built to bring the total number of inmates to 2,000. By this time, serious defects of construction had become apparent: in one ward the walls and rafters separated and the arched ceiling gave way while in another ward part of the ceiling collapsed. It was found that the roof was insufficient and that the foundations were insecure, necessitating reinforcement works in 1858.
Further extensions were added from 1875 to 1879, and by 1880 conditions for inmates had become very poor. In 1896, a temporary building of wood and corrugated iron was erected to house 320 chronic and infirm female patients in five dormitories, despite warnings from the
Commissioners in Lunacy
The Commissioners in Lunacy or Lunacy Commission were a public body established by the Lunacy Act 1845 to oversee asylums and the welfare of mentally ill people in England and Wales. It succeeded the Metropolitan Commissioners in Lunacy.
Previou ...
that this would pose a serious fire risk.
In 1889 control of the asylum was transferred to the newly formed
London County Council
London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...
.
Early 20th century
On 27 January 1903, the temporary building erected in 1896 was destroyed by a fire which claimed 52 lives, all female.
In its place, between 1908 and 1913 seven new permanent brick villas were built: four for the survivors of the fire, one for subnormal boys with
epilepsy
Epilepsy is a group of non-communicable neurological disorders characterized by recurrent epileptic seizures. Epileptic seizures can vary from brief and nearly undetectable periods to long periods of vigorous shaking due to abnormal electrical ...
or disturbed behaviour and two for patients with
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
or
dysentery
Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications ...
. In 1912 a disused carpenters' shop and stores by the railway siding were converted into additional accommodation for male patients and further extensions were made to staff accommodation in 1927, by which time staff included 9 full-time doctors, 494 nurses and 171 probationers.
In 1930, following the
Mental Treatment Act, the asylum was renamed the Colney Hatch Mental Hospital. In 1937 a female nurses' home was built, the resulting transfer of staff allowing the accommodation of 89 female patients in the old nurses' block. In the same year the hospital was once again renamed, this time as Friern Mental Hospital.
Second World War
During the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
twelve wards were requisitioned for use by the
Emergency Medical Service
Emergency medical services (EMS), also known as ambulance services or paramedic services, are emergency services that provide urgent pre-hospital treatment and stabilisation for serious illness and injuries and transport to definitive care. ...
(EMS) to be run by
St Bartholomew's Hospital
St Bartholomew's Hospital, commonly known as Barts, is a teaching hospital located in the City of London. It was founded in 1123 and is currently run by Barts Health NHS Trust.
History
Early history
Barts was founded in 1123 by Rahere (died ...
. The wards were used to accommodate 900 civilian war casualties and the displaced mental patients were redistributed around other wards and to
Bexley Hospital
Bexley Hospital was a psychiatric hospital at Old Bexley Lane, Dartford Heath, Bexley, in the County of Kent. It operated between 19 September 1898 and 2001.
History
The hospital was designed by George Thomas Hine and opened as the Heath Asylum ...
in Kent. In 1941 five villas were destroyed by bombs and thirty-six patients and four nurses were killed. By 1944 the hospital had 2,557 beds for mental patients and 746 EMS beds.
National Health Service
In 1948 the hospital became part of the newly formed
National Health Service
The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...
. In 1958 a new 145-bed admission unit, Halliwick Hospital, was built to the northwest of the main building.
The
1959 Mental Health Act required that the word 'mental' be omitted from hospital names, and the hospital became known as Friern Hospital.
In 1963, a café was opened for patients and visitors. Patients were able to earn up to 16/- (80p) 'pocket money' per week to spend in the café and hospital shop by working on the wards, kitchen and laundry. Male patients could also be paid in tobacco for their work.
By 1965, Friern Hospital housed 899 male and 1,037 female patients and employed 116 male and 113 female nurses plus 43 male and 33 female student nurses. In July 1965
Lord Strabolgi
Baron Strabolgi (pronounced "Strabogie") is a title in the Peerage of England supposedly created in 1318 for Scottish lord David of Strathbogie, 10th Earl of Atholl. Despite lack of evidence supporting its existence, it was called out of abeya ...
, speaking in the House of Lords, criticised the hospital for the number of patients who were there merely because they were old. A Committee of Enquiry held in 1966 found that the hospital accommodated 708 patients over the age of 60 years, of whom 253 (36%) were not considered by clinicians to be in need of psychiatric care. The report highlighted the lack of alternative accommodation for the elderly and the lack of social workers which in effect meant that there was nowhere else for elderly disturbed patients to be housed.
It was one of the hospitals investigated in 1967 as a result of the publication of Barbara Robb's book "Sans Everything". One of the allegations concerned lack of entertainment for middle-aged schizophrenic patients and of occupation for many of the elderly. The investigators concluded that "They may appear to be bored and dejected: in fact they are often incapable of animation." The Committee rejected entirely the allegation that everything in Friern was arranged for the benefit of the staff, including the suggestion that "the Physician Superintendent was seldom in the hospital for more than one or two hours a day". The latter gave evidence, which was accepted, that he attended the hospital daily from 9 am to 5.30 pm except on Wednesday afternoons.
Radio Friern
The hospital's internal broadcasting service started in 1971 after funds were raised by
Minchenden Grammar School
Minchenden School was a mixed secondary school situated in Southgate, North London, established in 1919 with 90 pupils. It merged with Arnos School in 1984.
History
The school was established in 1919 in Tottenhall Road as a mixed secondary sch ...
. Initially broadcasting to six wards from a studio in the patients' social club, the station expanded to cover most wards and departments within the hospital. Radio Friern moved to a new studio in premises originally occupied by the hospital dentist in 1975 increasing its broadcasting hours by the early 1980s to include programmes airing six days a week. The station continued to broadcast until the hospital's closure in 1993. Reference to the radio service in Barbara Taylor's book The Last Asylum is incorrect. Radio Friern was staffed by volunteers with day jobs away from the hospital, no patients were involved. Programmes would typically start at 5 pm weeknights as the first volunteers finished work. The weekend schedule started at 9 am. Staffed by no more than 25 people, Radio Friern was Friern Hospital's 'Big Little Station'.
Decline and closure
In 1973 the number of patients had been reduced to 1,500, and by 1979 the hospital had only 1,023 beds.
In 1989 it was decided that the hospital should close and its patients
reintegrated into the community where possible. Closure came in 1993, and the building and grounds were sold to
Luke and Brian Comer's
Comer Homes in 1995.
The building was converted into luxury flats called Princess Park Manor.
Residents of the development have included members of the boy band
One Direction
One Direction, often shortened to 1D, are an English-Irish pop boy band formed in London in 2010. The group are composed of Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, and previously Zayn Malik until his departure from the gr ...
, pop stars and footballers.
Notable residents
Notable residents included:
*
Adam Ant
Stuart Leslie Goddard, better known as Adam Ant (born 3 November 1954), is an English singer, musician, and actor. He gained popularity as the lead singer of new wave group Adam and the Ants and later as a solo artist, scoring 10 UK top ten ...
, following a suicide attempt by an overdose of pills in 1976.
*
John Duffy, British serial killer and rapist.
*
Aaron Kosminski
Aaron Kosminski (born Aron Mordke Kozmiński; 11 September 1865 – 24 March 1919) was a Polish barber and hairdresser, and suspect in the Jack the Ripper case.
Kosminski was a Polish Jew who emigrated from Congress Poland to England in the 18 ...
and
David Cohen,
Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in the autumn of 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer wa ...
suspects.
*
Dorothy Lawrence
Dorothy Lawrence (4 October 1896 – 4 October 1964) was an English journalist who posed as a male soldier to report from the front line during World War I. In 1915, she went to France, where she managed to obtain a military uniform and a false ...
, a journalist who dressed as a man to report on the front lines of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
*Maria Teresa Ferrari de Miramar, one of
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley (; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pro ...
's wives.
*
Jenny Diski
Jenny Diski FRSL (née Simmonds; 8 July 1947 – 28 April 2016) was an English writer. She had a troubled childhood, but was taken in and mentored by the novelist Doris Lessing; she lived in Lessing's house for four years. Diski was educated a ...
, an English writer, briefly stayed at the hospital.
[The London Review of Books, Vol. 36, No. 3, 6 Februari 2014](_blank)
www.lrb.co.uk. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
*
Barbara Taylor, then a young historian, was admitted in 1988 following a nervous breakdown. Decades later, she wrote ''The Last Asylum: A Memoir Of Madness In Our Times''.
In popular culture
The asylum is alluded to in
P.G. Wodehouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jee ...
's novel ''
The Code of the Woosters
''The Code of the Woosters'' is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published on 7 October 1938, in the United Kingdom by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States by Doubleday, Doran, New York. It was previously serialised in ''The Sa ...
''. When Wodehouse's famous
Jeeves
Jeeves (born Reginald Jeeves, nicknamed Reggie) is a fictional character in a series of comedic short stories and novels by English author P. G. Wodehouse. Jeeves is the highly competent valet of a wealthy and idle young Londoner named Bertie W ...
and
Wooster are discussing their latest predicament, Jeeves suggests that a character is eccentric, to which Wooster responds: "Eccentric? She could step straight into Colney Hatch, and no questions asked."
The asylum is referenced (as a byword for madness) in chapter 8 of the children's novel
The Magician's Nephew
''The Magician's Nephew'' is a fantasy children's novel by C. S. Lewis, published in 1955 by The Bodley Head. It is the sixth published of seven novels in ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' (1950–1956). In recent editions, which sequence the books ...
, part of the
Chronicles of Narnia
''The Chronicles of Narnia'' is a series of seven high fantasy novels by British author C. S. Lewis. Illustrated by Pauline Baynes and originally published between 1950 and 1956, ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' has been adapted for radio, telev ...
by
C.S Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, Oxford, Magdalen College, 1925–1 ...
: when
Jadis proclaims herself as an Empress and demands that residents of London bow to her, they jeeringly respond by saying in
Cockney dialect, "Three cheers for the Hempress of Colney 'atch!".
Will Self
William Woodard Self (born 26 September 1961) is an English author, journalist, political commentator and broadcaster. He has written 11 novels, five collections of shorter fiction, three novellas and nine collections of non-fiction writing. Sel ...
's 2012 novel ''
Umbrella
An umbrella or parasol is a folding canopy supported by wooden or metal ribs that is usually mounted on a wooden, metal, or plastic pole. It is designed to protect a person against rain or sunlight. The term ''umbrella'' is traditionally used ...
'' is largely set in the hospital. It also features in
Margaret Drabble
Dame Margaret Drabble, Lady Holroyd, (born 5 June 1939) is an English biographer, novelist and short story writer.
Drabble's books include '' The Millstone'' (1965), which won the following year's John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize, and ''Jer ...
's ''
The Pure Gold Baby''.
Lindsay Anderson
Lindsay Gordon Anderson (17 April 1923 – 30 August 1994) was a British feature-film, theatre and documentary director, film critic, and leading-light of the Free Cinema movement and of the British New Wave. He is most widely remembered for h ...
's 1982 film ''
Britannia Hospital
''Britannia Hospital'' is a 1982 British black comedy film, directed by Lindsay Anderson, which targets the National Health Service and contemporary British society. It was entered into the 1982 Cannes Film Festival and Fantasporto.
''Britan ...
'' used the hospital's buildings and entrance gates for exterior scenes.
In
G. K. Chesterton's ''The Man who was Thursday'', the asylum is again referenced as a byword for madness in the following dialog: “Your offer,” he said, “is far too idiotic to be declined. You say that a poet is always an anarchist. I disagree; but I hope at least that he is always a sportsman. Permit me, here and now, to swear as a Christian, and promise as a good comrade and a fellow-artist, that I will not report anything of this, whatever it is, to the police. And now, in the name of Colney Hatch, what is it?”
See also
*
Healthcare in London
Healthcare in London, which consumes about a fifth of the NHS budget in England, is in many respects distinct from that in the rest of the United Kingdom, or England.
History Early history
The earliest state hospitals in the UK were set up in L ...
References
External links
Princess Park Manor DevelopmentHistory & Photographs of the Colney Hatch Asylum
{{authority control
Hospital buildings completed in 1851
Hospitals established in 1851
Hospitals disestablished in 1993
NHS hospitals in London
Former psychiatric hospitals in England
History of the London Borough of Barnet
History of Middlesex
Health in the London Borough of Barnet
Defunct hospitals in London
Friern Barnet
1851 establishments in England
1993 disestablishments in England