St Lawrence's Hospital was a mental hospital in

Bodmin Bodmin () is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated south-west of Bodmin Moor. The extent of the civil parish corresponds fairly closely to that of the town so is mostly urban in character. It is bordered ...

, 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 In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

building.

History

Origins

St Lawrence's Hospital was originally built as the Cornwall County Asylum in 1818 to the design of architect John Foulston 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 William Robert Hicks (1808–1868) was a British asylum superintendent and well known humorist of the 19th century. Biography Hicks, son of William Hicks, a schoolmaster, of Bodmin, Cornwall, who died 16 March 1833, by Sarah, daughter of Willi ...

, 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. He was born the son of Reginald Pole and Anne Buller of Stoke Damerel, Plymouth, Devon. He was educated at Winchester College and University College, Oxford and en ...

, 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

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 Highway districts were areas in England and Wales united for the maintenance and repair of highways. They were first formed in 1862 and consisted of groupings of civil parishes in rural areas. They were abolished in 1894 when their powers and dutie ...

. The

Earl of Devon Earl of Devon is a title that has been created several times in the Peerage of England. It was possessed first (after the Norman Conquest of 1066) by the Redvers family (''alias'' de Reviers, Revieres, etc.), and later by the Courtenay famil ...

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. Hicks was—according to the

Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

—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 No ...

(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 usually refers to a Neo-Baroque architectural style that was popular for public buildings in the British Empire during the Edwardian era (1901–1910). Architecture up to 1914 is commonly included in this style. It can al ...

style. The National Asylum Workers' Union 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 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.

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 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 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, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

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 ( ), known between 1889 and 2009 as Cornwall County Council (), is the local authority which governs the non-metropolitan county of Cornwall in South West England. Since 2009 it has been a Unitary authorities of England, unitary ...

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