St Crispin's Hospital was a large

psychiatric Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of deleterious mental conditions. These include matters related to cognition, perceptions, mood, emotion, and behavior. Initial psychiatric assessment of ...

facility on the outskirts of

Duston Duston is a suburb of Northampton and a civil parish in West Northamptonshire, England. History Archaeological remains found in the area suggest that Duston has roots in Prehistoric and Roman settlements. However, development in the area ...

village in

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Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

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. It was established as Northampton Mental Hospital in 1876 and closed in 1995. The site has since been redeveloped for residential use with a small mental health unit still remaining there.

History

Work started on the hospital in 1873. It was designed by Robert Griffiths using a corridor layout and opened as the Northampton Mental Hospital in 1876. Additional blocks for children with mental health difficulties and for epileptics were completed in 1887. It served as a military hospital during the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and after the war it became Northampton Mental Hospital. It had joined the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

in 1948 and two female patient villas were completed in 1954. The hospital was used as a filming location in the 1977 series of

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

, in a six-part story called ''

The Talons of Weng-Chiang ''The Talons of Weng-Chiang'' is the sixth and final serial of the 14th season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in six weekly parts on BBC1 from 26 February to 2 April 1977. In the serial ...

''. The mortuary was used to represent a Victorian operating theatre. Following the introduction of

Care in the Community Care in the Community (also called "Community Care" or "Domiciliary Care") is a British policy of deinstitutionalisation, treating and caring for physically and mentally disabled people in their homes rather than in an institution. Institutional c ...

in the early 1980s the hospital went into a period of decline and closed in 1995. The children's block and the superintendents' house were developed by

Taylor Wimpey Taylor Wimpey plc (formerly Taylor Woodrow plc) is one of the largest home construction companies in the United Kingdom. The company was created from the merger of rivals Taylor Woodrow and George Wimpey on 3 July 2007. It is listed on the Lond ...

for residential use between 2005 and 2008 and a small area was applied for the construction of Berrywood Hospital, a modern mental health facility. In August 2014, over 80 Firefighters responded to an emergency call as a large fire broke out. One of the buildings was also seriously damaged in March 2015 after it was set on fire by arsonists.

Gallery

St Crispins main hall.jpg, The Main Hall held up with scaffolding after a major fire St Crispins Asylum Fire damaged Main Hall.JPG, The Main Hall and Clock Tower Stripped out Wards.jpg, The ward blocks have been stripped of most of their original features

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Crispins Hospital Hospital buildings completed in 1876 Defunct hospitals in England Former psychiatric hospitals in England History of Northamptonshire Hospitals in Northamptonshire