# Stone House Hospital / City of London Lunatic Asylum, Kent. October 2011



## professor frink (Oct 5, 2011)

Stone House Hospital, formerly the City of London Lunatic Asylum was founded in 1962, opened in April 1866 and closed in November 2007 ending 141 years of mental health care on this site.

Stone House was originally constructed between 1862 and 1866 at the behest of the London Commissioners in Lunacy to provide for the pauper lunatics from the London area.
The buildings were designed in a Tudor Revival architecture style by James Bunstone Bunning, and the facility accommodated 220 patients. The asylum grounds, at first were 33 acres and later expanded to 140 acres which included a working farm.
Additions to the original buildings were made in 1874, 1878, and 1885, including an expanded female wing and a separate hospital building for patients with infectious diseases. 
After 1892, the asylum was able to take "private" patients. The influx of private patients resulted in a budget surplus, and enabled expansion and improvements of the asylum's facilities. In 1924 the facility was renamed the City of London Mental Hospital.
In 1948 it was taken over by the new National Health Service and became known as Stone House Hospital. A 1998 assessment by Thames Healthcare suggested that the hospital was not suited for modern healthcare and plans for the hospital's closure were initiated in 2003 by West Kent NHS.


----------



## Em_Ux (Oct 6, 2011)

What a great looking place.

I enjoyed your photos...thanks


----------



## TeeJF (Oct 6, 2011)

Bl**dy hell, that's awesome! is it a big place? More piccies please!!!


----------



## Bluedragon (Oct 6, 2011)

Love the plastic chairs!


----------



## Lolpeacock (Oct 6, 2011)

_Additions to the original buildings were made in 1874, 1878, and 1885, including an expanded female wing and a separate hospital building for patients with infectious diseases._ 



Fancy that! They built a wing for expanded females. Brilliant!


----------



## professor frink (Oct 7, 2011)

TeeJF said:


> Bl**dy hell, that's awesome! is it a big place? More piccies please!!!


----------



## Pincheck (Oct 8, 2011)

very nice guys


----------



## klempner69 (Oct 8, 2011)

Brill stuff indeed.Thanks for sharing


----------



## TeeJF (Oct 8, 2011)

Cheers matey, that's is one awesome place!


----------



## nelly (Oct 8, 2011)

Very very nice !!!


----------



## maximus (Oct 8, 2011)

Great pics!!

Never seen back to back baths before!


----------



## Tizzme (Oct 8, 2011)

Great report and what a stunning building, well done for getting in before its trashed,thrashed and bashed


----------



## slidingloopz (Oct 10, 2011)

Cool pictures. 

Have they got any plans for this place? What with the price of land these days, I can't imagine something of this size hanging around abandoned in the South East these days...


----------



## green giant (Nov 14, 2011)

Great report and pics, glad you had more luck than I when I attempted it recently, very active site during the day, lots of builders and security.


----------



## FlutterGirl (Nov 14, 2011)

Woah..what a fantastic building!! Great report, really loved those photos. Thanks


----------



## glass (Nov 14, 2011)

green giant said:


> Great report and pics, glad you had more luck than I when I attempted it recently, very active site during the day, lots of builders and security.



Fab, closed in 2007 and not yet bunt own! 

Guessing it is being converted into apartments?


----------



## TK421 (Nov 14, 2011)

Tip top that is, and your photos are superb! I love the tower, never seen a design like that before.


----------



## UrbanX (Nov 15, 2011)

Stunning photos and write up! Never seen a report get an encore before  keep it up sir! 
Its managed to keep a fairly low profile on the forums considering it's apparent size / beauty!


----------



## professor frink (Nov 23, 2011)

UrbanX said:


> Stunning photos and write up! Never seen a report get an encore before  keep it up sir!
> Its managed to keep a fairly low profile on the forums considering it's apparent size / beauty!



In the past more have failed here than have succeeded, including myself. This place used to be like a fortress.

When I heard developers were on site I thought it would be a good time to finally crack the old girl, thankfully builders suck at securing sites


----------

