Park Prewett Hospital was a psychiatric hospital northwest of Basingstoke, in the county of

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, which operated from 1917 until 1997.

History

An American Nurse in Britain- the work of Sister Trotter at Park Prewett Hospital, Basingstoke, England, 1941 D3010

Park Prewett was an enclosure dating back to the time of Edward I. Following a report by the

Lunacy Commission 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. Previ ...

into overcrowding at

Knowle Hospital Knowle Hospital, was a psychiatric hospital in the village of Knowle near the town of Fareham in Hampshire, southern England, which opened in 1852 and closed in 1996. History A committee of nine JPs were appointed at the Easter Quarter Sessi ...

in the south of the county, a new site was required to house the expanding population. Park Prewett Farm was selected and then acquired in 1899. The hospital was designed by

George Thomas Hine George Thomas Hine FRIBA (1842–25 April 1916) was an English architect. His prolific output included new county asylums for Hertfordshire, Lincolnshire, Surrey, East Sussex and Worcestershire, as well as extensive additions to many others. Bi ...

but, because of a delay caused by a reduction in demand for mental health services in the county, construction did not commence until 1913. The works which were carried out by Thomas Rowbotham progressed slowly because of shortage of labour during 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 ...

but were completed in 1917. The building was first used by the Canadian Army Medical Corps as a military convalescent hospital. It was known as 'Number Four Canadian General Hospital'. The facility re-opened as Park Prewett Mental Hospital in 1921 and catered for 1,400 patients by 1939.

John Arlott Leslie Thomas John Arlott, OBE (25 February 1914 – 14 December 1991) was an English journalist, author and cricket commentator for the BBC's ''Test Match Special''. He was also a poet and wine connoisseur. With his poetic phraseology, he be ...

worked as a records clerk at the hospital for four years, from 1930 till 1934. The hospital returned to military use again 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 opposi ...

. Part of the hospital, Rooksdown House, was used by Sir Harold Gillies, the pioneering plastic surgeon. It was originally the private wing of the Asylum but became a

plastic surgery Plastic surgery is a surgical specialty involving the restoration, reconstruction or alteration of the human body. It can be divided into two main categories: reconstructive surgery and cosmetic surgery. Reconstructive surgery includes cranio ...

unit in 1940. The 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 " ...

as Park Prewett Hospital in 1948. Following the introduction of Care in the Community in the early 1980s the hospital went into a period of decline and ultimately closed in 1997. Park Prewett was bought by

English Partnerships English Partnerships (EP) was the national regeneration agency for England, performing a similar role on a national level to that fulfilled by regional development agencies on a regional level. On 1 December 2008 its powers passed to a successor ...

in 2005. They appointed

Taylor Woodrow Taylor Woodrow was one of the largest housebuilding and general construction companies in Britain. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until its merger with rival George Wimpey to create Ta ...

as developers for most new building on the site, and Thomas Homes for conversion of many of the old hospital blocks into housing and community facilities. The new housing development was called "Limes Park" and formed the core of a new

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

named

Rooksdown Rooksdown is a civil parish in the Basingstoke and Deane district of Hampshire, England. The parish was formed on 1 April 2004. It covers a small estate in the north-west of Basingstoke which was previously part of the parish of Sherborne St. J ...

Railway line

The hospital was served by its own railway line from 1913 until 1954 from a junction on the

South West Main Line The South West Main Line (SWML) is a 143-mile (230 km) major railway line between Waterloo station in central London and Weymouth on the south coast of England. A predominantly passenger line, it serves many commuter areas including south we ...

west of Basingstoke railway station.

References

External links

Photographic tour of an abandoned institution.Urban Desertion: Park PrewettPhotos and a History of Park PrewettBasingstoke Council: Park Prewett
{{authority control Hospital buildings completed in 1917 Former psychiatric hospitals in England Defunct hospitals in England History of Hampshire Hospitals in Hampshire Basingstoke Hospitals established in 1917