Bootham Park Hospital 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, dissociat ...

, located in the

Bootham Bootham is a street in the city of York, in England, leading north out of the city centre. It is also the name of the small district surrounding the street. History The street runs along a ridge of slightly higher ground east of the River Ous ...

district of

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

, England. It was managed by the

Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust The Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust is an NHS trust that provides mental health, learning disability and eating disorders services. It serves a population of around two million people living in County Durham, Darlington and mos ...

. The main building is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

Construction and operation

In 1772,

Robert Hay Drummond Robert Hay (10 November 1711 – 10 December 1776), known later as Robert Hay-Drummond of Cromlix and Innerpeffray, was successively Bishop of St Asaph, Bishop of Salisbury, and, from 1761 until his death, Archbishop of York. Origins and birth ...

, the

Archbishop of York The archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the province of York, which covers th ...

, decided along with "twenty-four Yorkshire gentlemen" to establish an asylum, to be known as the "County Lunatic Asylum, York". A committee was established, and the architect John Carr was co-opted with a pledge of 25 guineas. Carr's patron, the Marquis of Rockingham, pledged 100 guineas, and a total of £2,500 was subscribed. By July 1773, £5,000 had been promised, and Carr's scheme to accommodate 54 patients was approved on 25 August. The building was completed in 1777. Following criticism about the handling of inmates at the asylum and the death of

Hannah Mills Hannah Louise Mills, (born 29 February 1988) is a British competitive sailor and two-time world champion in the Women's 470 class, having won in 2012 and 2019. Mills won a silver medal for Team GB with her crew Saskia Clark in the 2012 Olymp ...

, who was a Quaker, led the local Quaker community to found a new asylum known as

The Retreat The Retreat, commonly known as the York Retreat, is a place in England for the treatment of people with mental health needs. Located in Lamel Hill in York, it operates as a not for profit charitable organisation. Opened in 1796, it is famous ...

in 1790. The asylum became Bootham Park Hospital in 1904 and it 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.

Closure

In late September 2015 the hospital building was declared unfit by the

Care Quality Commission The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care of the United Kingdom. It was established in 2009 to regulate and inspect health and social care services in England. I ...

, and ordered to close by the end of the month. Staff were given 5 days' notice to close the building. The hospital was closed on 1 October 2015, having been declared unfit for purpose. On the same day

replaced

Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust Leeds and York Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust became an NHS Foundation Trust in August 2007. It merged with mental health and learning disability services from NHS North Yorkshire and York in February 2012 becoming Leeds and York Partnership ...

as the provider of most mental health services in York. Patients were transferred suddenly to other premises, some quite distant. An independent report commissioned by

City of York Council City of York Council is the municipal governing body of the City of York, a unitary authority in Yorkshire, England. It is composed of 47 councillors, one, two, or three for each of the 21 electoral wards of York. It is responsible for all local ...

from John Ransford concluded: *The Vale of York

Clinical Commissioning Group Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were NHS organisations set up by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to organise the delivery of NHS services in each of their local areas in England. On 1 July 2022 they were abolished and replaced by Integ ...

failed to ensure that the transfer was properly managed; *Leeds & York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust had not properly taken responsibility for the building, although they spent £2.7 million on refurbishing the old building; *If Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust failed to investigate the problems they would be sanctioned; * NHS Property Services significantly underestimated the logistic and practical challenges of upgrading a Grade I listed building where shortcomings had been identified over many years; *The

gave insufficient attention to the particular issues raised by formal de-registration and registration of facilities, triggered by the transfer of services between agencies. A smaller 24-bedded unit opened in 2016 replacing the 36 beds from Bootham Park Hospital. Outpatient clinics also reopened in February 2016. In April 2020 the hospital was being considered as a location where additional beds could be provided during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

References

External links

Bootham Park Hospital Archive
held at th
Borthwick Institute for Archives, University of YorkHospital archives
{{authority control Buildings and structures completed in 1777 Hospital buildings completed in the 18th century Former psychiatric hospitals in England Hospitals in York Grade I listed buildings in York 1770s establishments in England Defunct hospitals in England