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The First Sixty Years

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The First Sixty Years WEST PARK HOSPITAL EPSOM SURREY The First Sixty Years Bryan C.T. Johnson, F.H.A., Secretary/Treasury/Supplies Officer, West Park Hospital Management Committee ----------------- INTRODUCTION The only excuse the author can offer for writing this book is that he joined the staff of West Park Hospital within four years of its opening, and has been its servant for forty years since. The main sources of information have been the Board of Control Reports until 1959, and the proceedings of the Hospital Management Committee since 1948. Personal recollections of people have influenced what is written to a very great extent. There have been many outstanding men and women associated with West Park and selection has been difficult. If all were mentioned, the book would be too long, but memory can be deceptive and there may be omissions, incomprehensible to some who have known the hospital for a long time. In such cases the author offers his apologies coupled with the assurance that no slight has been intended. A note has been included in Appendix I on the history and development of the Area Laboratory, which, it is hoped, will be of interest. Information about the early years of the laboratory has been derived from "The L.C.C. Hospitals-A Retrospect," published by the London County Council in 1949· As to Appendix II, the author is indebted to an article on the History of Mental Treatment Administration by T. J. BELBIN, D.P.A., F.H.A., published as a winning Essay in the Journal of the Incorporated Association of Clerks and Stewards of Mental Hospitals in March 1938; also to a series of three articles on the Early Development of Mental Health Services by J. F. Milne, M.c., B.SC., published in The Hospital, January to March, 1954. 1 CHAPTER I 1907-1924 It is said that the Chinese calculated a man's age by reference to conception rather than birth. Perhaps this reason inspired the title of this volume, for, although West Park Hospital was opened in 1924, its plans bear the date 1907. In this opening chapter some of the effects of this overlong period of gestation will be discussed. An Act of Parliament of 1845 imposed upon counties and boroughs an obligation to provide asylums for the insane. This was at a time when there was the beginning of an overall increase m the population of the country. Towards the end of the nineteenth century London was experiencing what is now fancifully called a population explosion. This is not a very accurate simile because the "explosion" continues to this day. Upon its constitution under the Local Government Act of 1888 the London County Council had taken over, from the administrative counties from which it was formed, a proportionate number of their asylums, e.g. Colney Hatch (now Frien); Cane Hill; Hanwell (St. Bernard's), and the foundations of Claybury. These were insufficient to meet the ever growing needs of the increasing population of the metropolis. More asylums were needed. In 1896 the Council bought the Manor of Horton at Epsom comprising l,040 acres. The cost was reasonable, which satisfied the rate-payers, and the general population was quite happy to have its lunatics out of sight and out of mind, nearly fifteen miles away from the centre of London. The first asylum to be opened on the Horton Estate was. the Manor in 1899, built around the old manor house, later used for subnormal patients. This was followed by Horton in 1902. Ewell Epileptic Colony (now St. Ebba's) in 1903; and Long Grove in 1907. The Manor, Horton and Long Grove provided approximately 5,500 additional beds for mental illness, but the needs of the county remained unsatisfied. Thus, in the year that Long Grove was opened, the plans for West Park advanced to the drawing board. The general layout of all the mental hospitals designed about this time shows little variation and West Park followed quite closely that at Long Grove, although there are differences of detail. The spine of the hospital runs from north to south, from the boiler house to the administration block, and contains between the two main corridors the common services. These include pharmacy and theatre, recreation hall (seating 1,200), and visiting room, main kitchen and ancillary departments, and. the stores. Immediately adjacent are the needleroom and laundry, and the workshops. In rough semi-circles based on the two main corridors are the principal female wards on the west, and the male wards on the east. The reception hospitals are in a separate building to the south and there are, in addition, four villas for men and three for women, as well as two sanatorium wards and a tiny isolation hospital. The chapel is a large building on the main drive and has seats for 850 worshippers. Hidden from the public eye behind the chapel is the mortuary and a laboratory. In all there were forty-five ,wards, with accommodation for 2,096 patients. Accommodation for resident staff was very limited and separate blocks provided only for female staff. This was for two reasons. It was a matter of policy that nurses should occupy rooms off the wards as a measure of security, and in those days there were only two shifts, compared with three now. Indeed it was not until 1959 that a separate block was built for resident male staff, although a new nurses' home was opened for women in 1938. All the principal buildings were constructed of red engineering bricks, in a particularly pleasing bond, and no ward block is on more than two floors, the ceiling of the lower and the floor of the upper being formed of reinforced concrete. Few visitors to the hospital realise that the corridors which they traverse in every case run over one-and a-half miles of sub-ways, which carry all the main services, i.e. hot and cold water, steam, gas, electricity and telephone cables. The tower, one of those which so disturbed Mr. ENOCH POWELL when Minister of Health, serves two very practical purposes-to enclose the boiler house chimney and to accommodate three oversize water tanks, which alone maintain adequate pressure through the mains. This tower is 120 feet high, and stands on a solid base, 18 feet thick, of blue engineering bricks. The whole is so well planned that virtually all wards and departments face southward. The site is, or was, somewhat of a crater with very varying levels, so that, in building, much of the basement and subway work to the north was built over ground and the levels made up by the movement of earth from the south, and by depositing the spoil from the digging of the tube railway when it was extended to Morden. The hospital is set in 83½ acres of grounds, the actual buildings covering nine acres. The Council had run a railway line to convey coal from West Ewell to the Central Station (between Long Grove and West Park) where electricity was generated for all these mental hospitals; this railway line was extended to West Park, and continued in use until 1949. 2 The hospital was planned by the staff of the London County Council under the direction of W. C. CLIFFORD SMITH, O.B.E., F.R.I.B.A., Architect to the Council, and Mental Hospitals' Engineer. The contract for building was let to Leslie & Co. Limited, and work commenced in 1913, being interrupted in 1916 because of the Great War and resumed in 1920. It is interesting to note that the original estimated price was £517,970, but inflation took its toll and the final cost on completion in 1925 amounted to £1,030,670. Despite this doubling of the cost, it is a fact that, to some extent, West Park was a casualty of the first world war in that, where earlier hospitals had hardwood floors, those of West Park were of soft wood, which has increased maintenance problems very considerably. Otherwise, the buildings are most substantial and the main fabric is very resistant to alteration. From time to time, there have been subsidences, due to the clay subsoil, but these have been minimal in relation to the whole, and the hospital continues to present a handsome appearance. An early aerial photograph shows a somewhat naked appearance, but the grounds were laid out with great care, an operation in which the medical superintendent took an intense personal interest. The result over the years has been to ensure a sylvan setting, although it must be admitted that some thinning out has been necessary because trees, however beautiful, can cut off light and air from wards and departments. · This last of the London County Council Mental Hospitals was opened with due ceremony by the Right Honourable JOHN WHEATLEY, M.P., Minister of Health, on 20th June, 1924· Those present included the Chairman of the Council (Mr. J. HERBERT HUNTER, J.P.); the Chairman of the General Purposes Sub- Committee (Sir JOHN GILBERT, K.B.E.); the Chairman of the Mental Hospitals' Committee (the Hon. WILLIAM SIDNEY, J.P.); the Chairman of the West Park Mental Hospital Sub-Committee (Mr. ERNEST SANGER); the Vice-Chairman of the Mental Hospitals' Committee (Mrs. R. DUNN GARDNER, J.P.); the Clerk of the Council (SIR JAMES BIRD, J.P.); the Chief Officer of the Mental Hospitals' Department (Mr. H. F. KEENE, O.B.E.); the Mental Hospitals' Engineer (Mr. W. C. CLIFFORD SMITH, O.B.E., F.R.I.B.A.), and the Medical Superintendent of the West Park Mental Hospital (Major NORCLIFFE ROBERTS, O.B.E., M.D., B.S., D.P.M.).
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