Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum

Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum (or Friern Hospital) was an early psychiatric hospital located in Colney Hatch in what is now the London Borough of Barnet. The hospital was in operation from 1851 to 1993.

At its height Colney Hatch was home to 3500 mental patients and had the longest corridor in Britain, and hence, its name was synonymous among Londoners with any mental institution. It would take a visitor more than five hours to walk the wards.^[1]

The lunatic asylum, as such hospitals were known at the time, was located on Friern Barnet Road. It is shown on this Victorian Ordnance Survey map of 1876-1881 which marks Colney Hatch Park in the area centred on Springfield Road in New Southgate, in the London Borough of Enfield. The asylum itself was further west in what is now generally called Friern Barnet, in the London Borough of Barnet.

It was close to the Great Northern Railway and had its own station.^[1]

History

Originally plans were made and land purchased for this asylum to be built in proximity close to the existing 1st Middlesex County Asylum at Hanwell on ground that lies just on the other side of the Grand Union Canal. Perhaps the number of other asylums already in the area led to the decision to have it built elsewhere. The architect was Samuel Daukes, the design of which was based on the advice of John Conolly, the superintendent of the 1st Middlesex Asylum. It opened on the 17th of July, 1851 and was officially referred to as the 2nd Middlesex County Asylum with William Charles Hood (1824-1870) being its first medical superintendent.^[2]

In 1889 its control was transferred to the London County Council. On January 27, 1903, 52 people died in a fire at the asylum. It became known as the Colney Hatch Mental Hospital in 1918 until it was renamed Friern Mental Hospital in 1937, the name later changing simply to Friern Hospital in 1959.^[1] After a long period of decline the hospital closed in 1993 and the building was converted into luxury flats under the name Princess Park Manor. While much of the hospital's grounds were also sold off for building, much also remains in public hands and is accessible to anyone.

Notable residents

• John Duffy, British serial killer and rapist.
• Aaron Kosminski, a Jack the Ripper suspect.
• Dorothy Lawrence, a woman who dressed as a man to fight on the front lines of World War I.
• Maria Teresa Ferrari de Miramar, one of Aleister Crowley's wives.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Dumayne, Alan (1998). Southgate. Sutton Publishing Limited. p. 118. ISBN 0750920009. 
2. ^ "Index of Lunatic Asylums and Mental Hospitals". www.mdx.ac.uk. http://www.mdx.ac.uk/WWW/STUDY/4_13_TA.htm#Friern. Retrieved 2008-12-09. ^{[dead link]}

External links

• Princess Park Manor Development
• History & Photographs of the Colney Hatch Asylum

Coordinates: 51°36′50″N 0°08′54″W / 51.61402°N 0.14839°W / 51.61402; -0.14839