Littlemore Hospital was a mental health facility on Sandford Road in

Littlemore Littlemore is a district and civil parish in Oxford, England. The civil parish includes part of Rose Hill. It is about southeast of the city centre of Oxford, between Rose Hill, Blackbird Leys, Cowley, and Sandford-on-Thames. The 2011 Censu ...

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

History

The hospital, which was designed by

Robert Clarke Robert Irby Clarke (June 1, 1920 – June 11, 2005) was an American actor best known for his cult classic science fiction films of the 1950s. Early life Clarke was born and raised in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He decided at an early age that h ...

using a Corridor Plan layout, opened as the Oxford County Pauper Lunatic Asylum in August 1846. The ward spurs were extended to a design by

Henry Jones Underwood Henry Jones Underwood (1804–1852) was an English architect who spent most of his career in Oxford. He was the brother of the architects Charles Underwood (''circa'' 1791–1883) and George Allen Underwood (dates unknown). Underwood t ...

in 1847. Littlemore railway station was opened, giving improved access to the hospital, in 1864, and two additional pavilion blocks connected by a recreation hall were completed to a design by

Edwin Dolby Edwin Dolby was an English Victorian architect who practised in Abingdon. His works include the design of Abingdon School. Career According to census records Dolby was born in Sutton Bonington, Nottinghamshire. By 1869 he working from 2 Bedw ...

and Henry Tollit in 1902. During the last few months of the

First World War 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 ...

the hospital served as the Ashurst Military hospital and it was then renamed Littlemore Hospital in 1922. After some of the pavilions saw service with the

Emergency Hospital Service During World War II, a centralised state-run Emergency Hospital Service was established in the United Kingdom.Paul Addison, "The Road to 1945", Jonathan Cape, 1975, pp. 178–81. It employed doctors and nurses to care for those injured by enemy act ...

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 ...

, the whole facility joined the

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 1948. Dr Bertram Mandelbrote, who carried out pioneering work on creating

therapeutic communities Therapeutic community is a participative, group-based approach to long-term mental illness, personality disorders and drug addiction. The approach was usually residential, with the clients and therapists living together, but increasingly residential ...

, became superintendent at the hospital in 1959. After the introduction of

Care in the Community Care in the Community (also called "Community Care" or "Domiciliary Care") is a British policy of deinstitutionalisation, treating and caring for physically and mentally disabled people in their homes rather than in an institution. Institutional ca ...

in the early 1980s, the hospital went into a period of decline and closed in 1998. The main hospital building was converted into apartments as St. George's Park. Some of the rear blocks were acquired by Yamanouchi (now

Astellas Pharma is a Japanese multinational pharmaceutical company, formed on 1 April 2005 from the merger of and . On February 5, 2020, the company announced management changes effective from April 1, 2020. Astellas is a member of the Mitsubishi UFJ Finan ...

) for use as a research facility but then sold on, in 2008, to the

SAE Institute The SAE Institute (SAE, formerly the School of Audio Engineering and the SAE Technology College) is a Private college, private For-profit higher education in the United States, for-profit college with campuses and facilities, including license ...

for use as a training establishment. Meanwhile, a modern mental health facility known as the Littlemore Mental Health Centre, which includes the Ashurst Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and Phoenix Ward (Adult Male in-patient), have been established on the opposite side of Sandford Road.

References

{{authority control Hospitals in Oxfordshire Hospital buildings completed in 1846 Hospitals established in 1846 1846 establishments in England 1998 disestablishments in England Hospitals disestablished in 1998 Defunct hospitals in England Former psychiatric hospitals in England