South Ockendon Hospital
| South Ockendon Hospital | |
|---|---|
| Construction Began | 1930 |
| Opened | 1932 |
| Closed | 1994 |
| Demolished | 1995 |
| Current Status | Demolished |
| Building Style | Cottage Plan |
| Alternate Names |
|
History[edit]
In 1932 a ‘Colony for Mental Defectives’ (British History Online) was opened at Little Mollands Farm. This was in response to a growing social awareness that some people needed help and care and came long before the 1948 birth of the NHS. The answer came in another social experiment, sending people with mental problems away from the London Boroughs to remote Essex, South Ockendon. One and two storey villas were built and named after the trees they were set amongst; Pine, Beech, Lime, Willow and Laurel, in 84 acres, the other 94 acres remained as farm land.
By the outbreak of WW2, 520 beds were made available, but by 1945, with many nurses having enlisted, there was a huge shortage of staff. A student nurse could be found caring for up to 60 patients.
In 1948 the colony became part of the NHS but remained overcrowded and understaffed, despite new facilities being built. South Ockendon Psychiatric Hospital as it was then called had even more villas built as well as clinics and operating theatres. One such villa opened in 1967 as a Regional Secure Unit for ‘mentally handicapped psychopaths’. Upheld complaints of inhumane treatment meant that its use as a secure unit was not long term.
Stories of terrible conditions in other ‘mental hospitals’ started appearing in national newspapers and this, coupled with the killing of a patient by another patient in South Ockendon and the fact that the 1065 bed were still not sufficient led to changes. In 1970, the South Ockendon Psychiatric Hospital would only admit one patient for every four discharged.
In 1971, a school for ‘educational subnormal’ children under 16 years old was opened but by 1972, the death of an elderly patient in dubious circumstances as well as concerns about neglect of other patients, led to a nationwide reappraisal in mental care; the ‘Report of the Committee of Enquiry into South Ockendon Hospital’.
The idea of patients being ‘made ready’ for return to the community was fostered and six terraced ‘bungalows’ were opened in which patients would receive training in daily living requirements. By 1979 the hospital had 724 beds and in 1990, 594 beds, as patients were integrated into smaller homes in the community. South Ockendon Hospital was closed in 1994, after which it was mostly demolished.[1] The site has been redeveloped. It is now Brandon Groves Estate, which was completed in 2000 and contains 688 dwellings. The streets are named after trees, just as the ward blocks of the Hospital were. The central part of the site contains mature trees, which would have been inherited from the Hospital era. Little else remains. A building that looks as though it could have been a chapel is used as a local community club.[2]
