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Farmside Place, EPSOM, KT19 8GW

Redevelopment of West Park psychiatric hospital.

Redevelopment of West Park psychiatric hospital.

Previously part of West Park Hospital.

The old mental hospital occupied a substantial acreage, but the majority of the buildings had been demolished by the time this shot was taken. Most were two-storey red-brick structures dating from the 1920's or '30's. entirely institutional in style. The structure seen here is marked on the map as a chimney. To me it looks like the sort of tower which was once characteristic of old-fashioned laundries. The bench in the foreground stands outside the Meadows Day Clinic, which offers monitoring and support for patients with dementia. I remember sitting here one summer's day a few years ago with my late step-father, then in his nineties. The hospital site is currently being redeveloped for housing. Some of the old red-brick ward buildings will be retained and converted, but much of the area will be covered by 'new-build'.

Landmark tower, possibly an old laundry block, at the former mental hospital south of Chessington.

The old mental hospital site is being developed for housing (2012) but many of the original buildings are still standing.

Less than a quarter of the original hospital remains, while the rest is either being demolished or converted for housing. The works have been continuing for a few years and still plenty left to do.

West Park was a huge sprawling hospital with its own road system, and for a number of years is gradually either being demolished or converted to housing, currently just over half the old buildings have gone and besides around a quarter or less being retained as a hospital the others are in the process of conversion.