St Lawrence's Hospital was a mental hospital in Bodmin, Cornwall, England, UK. Part of the hospital has been converted to residential accommodation and the remainder has been demolished. It is a Grade II* listed building.

History

Origins

St Lawrence's Hospital was originally built as the Cornwall County Asylum in 1818 to the design of architect

John Foulston John Foulston (1772 – 30 December 1841) was an English architect who was a pupil of Thomas Hardwick and set up a practice in London in 1796.Peter Leach, ''Foulston, John (1772–1841)'', rev., Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford Un ...

in the form of a star-shaped building with a central block and radiating wings. It was designed to deal with the problem of housing the insane poor and inmate conditions were notoriously bad. The humorist, William Robert Hicks, became domestic superintendent in the 1840s. It was extended in 1844 by the construction of the three-storey "High Building", demolished in 1964, and again in 1849 by the construction of Williams House, which was converted into apartments in 2004. A third extension, built in 1860, was known as the Carew building after the Rt Hon

Reginald Pole Carew Reginald Pole Carew (28 July 1753 – 3 January 1835) was a British politician. Rt. Hon. Reginald Pole-Carew was born the son of Reginald Pole and Anne Buller of Stoke Damerel, Plymouth, Devon. He was educated at Winchester College and Univers ...

, a local politician. A fourth extension, built in 1870, was known as the Long Building (later the Kendall Building) and was also demolished after it burned down in 1905. The foundation stone for a new building, constructed at a cost of £12,000, was laid by Sir William Wallace Rhoderic Onslow, Bt on 28 August 1882. The architect was a Mr Hine. In 1840 William Robert Hicks was appointed domestic superintendent of the Cornwall county lunatic asylum, clerk of the asylum, and clerk to the committee of visitors at Bodmin, and soon after was also named clerk to the highway board. The

Earl of Devon Earl of Devon was created several times in the English peerage, and was possessed first (after the Norman Conquest of 1066) by the de Redvers (''alias'' de Reviers, Revieres, etc.) family, and later by the Courtenay family. It is not to be co ...

afterwards procured for him the additional situation of auditor of the metropolitan district asylums. When Hicks became connected with the Bodmin asylum he found the old system of management prevailing, and in conjunction with the medical superintendent introduced more humane modern methods. One patient who was chained in a dark cell as a dangerous lunatic turned out to be a wit and a philosopher. He was found to be harmless, and employed to take care of the pigs and do other useful work. He was—according to the Dictionary of National Biography—a very good man of business. He printed ''Statistics respecting the Food supplied to Paupers in the Western Unions of Cornwall''.

Expansion

A completely new building to stand to the west of the first was designed in 1901 by

Silvanus Trevail Silvanus Trevail (11 November 1851 – 7 November 1903) was a British architect, and the most prominent Cornish architect of the 19th century. Early life Trevail was born at Carne Farm, Trethurgy in the parish of Luxulyan, Cornwall on 11 Nove ...

(1851–1903), one of Cornwall's best-known architects.''Private Eye'' 1343, p.14 The building was not completed until 1906, three years after the architect's death. Described by Trevail's biographer as "one of his finest achievements", it was built in the

Edwardian Baroque Edwardian architecture is a Neo-Baroque architectural style that was popular in the British Empire during the Edwardian era (1901–1910). Architecture up to the year 1914 may also be included in this style. Description Edwardian architecture is ...

style. The

National Asylum Workers' Union The Mental Hospital and Institutional Workers' Union was a trade union in the United Kingdom. The union was established as the National Asylum Workers' Union in 1910 by asylum attendants in Lancashire. George Gibson became its General Secretar ...

organised a strike of female employees at the hospital in 1918. The whole complex was renamed the St Lawrence's Hospital when 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.

Post war

This was one of the hospitals investigated in 1967 as a result of the publication of

Barbara Robb Barbara Robb (née Anne, 15 April 1912 – 21 June 1976) was a British campaigner for the well-being of older people, best known for founding and leading the pressure group AEGIS (Aid for the Elderly in Government Institutions) and for the book '' ...

's book ''Sans Everything''. Evidence was given by a nursing assistant: "When I was new on my ward, and not been issued with a uniform, one old lady said to me ‘You aren’t a nurse, dear; you can’t be. You don’t hit us or shout at us’. Another said ‘No-one smiles here. We are no good in here; useless, bloody wets’". After the introduction of Care in the Community in the early 1980s the hospital went into a period of decline and finally closed in 2002. The former hospital's owners, Community First Cornwall, wished to demolish the Foster building to clear the site. Despite local support for its preservation,

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

declined a request to list the building on the grounds of insufficient reason.This is Cornwall, May 1 2013
Retrieved June 2013 In May 2013

Cornwall Council Cornwall Council ( kw, Konsel Kernow) is the unitary authority for Cornwall in the United Kingdom, not including the Isles of Scilly, which has its own unitary council. The council, and its predecessor Cornwall County Council, has a tradition ...

decided that the demolition of the building did not require an environmental impact assessment, removing one of the last remaining obstacles to its removal. Although the Foster Hall Revival Trust began a campaign aimed at preserving the building and proposing alternatives to demolition, demolition started in September 2013.

References

External links

Facebook page dedicated to the preservation of Foster Hall
Retrieved June 2013 {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Lawrence's Hospital, Bodmin Grade II* listed buildings in Cornwall Hospital buildings completed in 1906 Defunct hospitals in England Hospitals established in 1906 Hospitals established in 1818 1901 establishments in England 2002 disestablishments in England Silvanus Trevail buildings Grade II* listed hospital buildings John Foulston buildings Bodmin Former psychiatric hospitals in England Hospitals in Cornwall