The Londonderry County Asylum ( ga, Tearmann Chontae Dhoire) 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 ...

at Strand Road in

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...

County Londonderry County Londonderry ( Ulster-Scots: ''Coontie Lunnonderrie''), also known as County Derry ( ga, Contae Dhoire), is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the thirty two counties of Ireland and one of the nine counties of Ulster. B ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

History

The hospital, which was designed by Francis Johnston and William Murphy, opened as the Londonderry Asylum in 1829. It had been built at a cost of £25,678 and was intended to cater for the City of

and the counties of Londonderry,

Donegal Donegal may refer to: County Donegal, Ireland * County Donegal, a county in the Republic of Ireland, part of the province of Ulster * Donegal (town), a town in County Donegal in Ulster, Ireland * Donegal Bay, an inlet in the northwest of Ireland b ...

and Tyrone. The asylum initially provided accommodation for 104 patients but had to be extended the following year so it could accommodate 150 patients. After the patients were transferred to the new Gransha Hospital, the asylum closed in 1905. By the mid-1960s the site had become overgrown and the remaining buildings were demolished soon after. There are local stories of tunnels running from the old infirmary (where Clarendon Manor is now located at the top of Clarendon Street/Asylum Road) that ran into the asylum. Another tunnel running from the asylum Superintendent's residence on the Northland Road to the asylum was reported to have been bricked up in the 1960s. The North West Regional College Strand Road Campus is now located on the site of the asylum.

References

{{authority control Hospitals in County Londonderry Hospital buildings completed in 1829 Hospitals established in 1829 1829 establishments in Ireland Defunct hospitals in Northern Ireland Hospitals disestablished in 1905 1905 disestablishments in Ireland Demolished buildings and structures in Northern Ireland Buildings and structures demolished in the 1960s 19th-century architecture in Northern Ireland