Springfield University Hospital is 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 ...

Tooting Tooting is a district in South London, forming part of the London Borough of Wandsworth and partly in the London Borough of Merton. It is located south south-west of Charing Cross. History Tooting has been settled since pre-Saxon times. Th ...

South London South London is the southern part of London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the boroughs, in whole or in part, of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Richmond, Southwark, Sut ...

and also the headquarters of the South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust.

History

The hospital opened as the Surrey County

Pauper Pauperism (Lat. ''pauper'', poor) is poverty or generally the state of being poor, or particularly the condition of being a "pauper", i.e. receiving relief administered under the English Poor Laws. From this, pauperism can also be more generally ...

Lunatic Asylum The lunatic asylum (or insane asylum) was an early precursor of the modern psychiatric hospital. The fall of the lunatic asylum and its eventual replacement by modern psychiatric hospitals explains the rise of organized, institutional psychiatr ...

in 1840. The original building was a grand symmetrical red brick Tudor-style composition enclosing a large courtyard, built to the designs of

Edward Lapidge Edward Lapidge (1779–1860) was an English architect, who held the post of county surveyor of Surrey and designed Kingston Bridge. Life and career Edward Lapidge was the eldest son of Samuel Lapidge, the head gardener at Hampton Court Palace ...

, the county surveyor. A purpose-built chapel was added in 1881. It came under the management of Middlesex County Council in 1888 and was renamed the Wandsworth Asylum. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

it became the Springfield War Hospital and, after the war, it became the Springfield Mental Hospital. A new infirmary block to treat mentally ill patients who were also physically ill opened in July 1932. 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 ...

a serious bout of

dysentery Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications ...

broke out at the hospital. 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. It 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''. The committee found that at least two of the charge nurses showed themselves prone to outbursts of ill-temper which expressed itself in violence. In 2004 John Barrett, who had

paranoid schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social w ...

, walked out of the hospital and stabbed Dennis Finnegan, a cyclist, to death. In its heyday the hospital had 2,000 patients but it is now reduced to under 300 inpatients. Much of the original hospital building is now disused, and there are plans to convert this to a residential development, "Springfield Village". Proceeds are being used to create new state-of-the- art mental health centres at Springfield and at Tolworth Hospital in

Surbiton Surbiton is a suburban neighbourhood in South West London, within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames (RBK). It is next to the River Thames, southwest of Charing Cross. Surbiton was in the historic county of Surrey and since 1965 it ha ...

. In January 2020 £150 million of funding was approved to create eight new inpatient wards at the hospital. In February 2020 the hospital was featured in the BBC documentary "On the Psych Ward".

References

External links

Official site
{{authority control Hospital buildings completed in 1840 Psychiatric hospitals in England NHS hospitals in London Hospitals established in 1840 Buildings by Edward Lapidge 1840 establishments in England