Whitchurch Hospital / Asylum : Cardiff - Wales cc2023
HISTORY
The idea for Whitchurch Hospital, formerly the Cardiff City Mental Hospital - or Cardiff City Asylum as it was sometimes known - was softened at the end of the 19th century.
Even though it did not formally open until cc1908, Whitchurch was undoubtedly a product of Victorian Age thinking and medical practice. Undoubtedly this is something from which it has suffered ever since.
Opening on 15th April cc1908 after 10 years of construction, the Cardiff City Asylum covered 5 acres and cost £350,000. The hospital had a capacity of 750 patients across 5 male and 5 female wards. Like most of the Victorian asylums, it was designed from out outset to be a fully self contained institute. As such, it had its own 150ft water tower and a farm providing food supplies and work for the patients.
The asylum also had two Belliss and Morcom steam engine powered electric generator sets which were removed from standby service in the mid-cc1980s.
During WW1, Whitchurch Hospital was used by the military and became known as the Welsh Metropolitan War Hospital and was used to treat injured soldiers requiring orthopaedic treatment. The psychiatric patients were moved to other institutions.
There was very little provision for people who were mentally ill during the early part of the 19th century, mental illness being closely associated - in the minds of the general public - with poverty and crime. The wealthy could afford to hire doctors or nurses for members of their family who had mental health problems, could even place them, if necessary, in private hospitals or asylums.
For the poor, however, there was little provision - just a small scattering of public hospitals or, inevitably, the workhouse. As the
Industrial Revolution changed the make up of society the problem of vagrancy and of paupers with significant mental health problems became significant. As a result county asylums were created, places where "pauper lunatics," as they were known, could be conveniently herded - and forgotten.
Cardiff saw an enormous rise in its population as the 19th century unfolded.
In cc1851 it was 18,351 - 20 years later that figure had risen to nearly 40,000. Inevitably there was a growing need for mental health provision.
Banded brickwork and the 150 foot water tower dominated the site which consisted of 10 hospital blocks, five for men and five for women. A self contained farm was to be an important feature of the hospital, providing food and therapeutic work for patients.
There was much controversy over this farm, which was originally intended to cost some £4,000. The plan was castigated in the Welsh press, with cartoonists in particular having a field day. The proposed plans were soon altered and the cost reduced to £2,000.
The first medical superintendent was Dr Edwin Goodhall and the first patients arrived at the hospital on 1 May cc1908. By the end of June more than 600 patients, mostly male but a large contingent of women as well, had been admitted.
Within a few years Whitchurch Hospital had acquired a remarkable reputation at the forefront of mental health care. This was down to the quality and commitment of the nurses and medical staff and, in particular, Dr Goodall. Concern for the welfare of patients went beyond simple custodial care and there was a very real desire to help people with their problems and, if possible, to assist them in taking a place in society, however limited that involvement might be.
During
World War One the hospital was run by the military as a general medical and surgical institution, its patients having been disbanded to other mental hospitals around the area. In cc1919 things returned to normal, patients returning from their enforced stays elsewhere.
During the cc1930s the hospital constantly received good reports, a high proportion of the nurses being qualified in both general and mental health nursing. Until the late cc1930s, however, those nurses worked a 60-hour week, living in the hospital where their private and social lives were stringently governed and controlled.
Research into the causes and treatment of mental illness was always a part of Dr Goodall's programmes, Whitchurch was well equipped with laboratories and research equipment. The number of patients discharged from Whitchurch was better than almost all other similar institutions in Britain, and after-care was equally as important to Goodall and his team.
During
World War Two part of the hospital was again in use by the military. Eight hundred beds were handed over to the military, making Whitchurch the largest emergency services hospital in Wales.
Unlike World War One, 200 beds were retained for civilian mental health patients. Over the six years of conflict British, American and occasionally even German soldiers were treated there for wounds and for the psychological trauma of modern warfare.
On 5 July cc1948, the hospital was taken over by the Ministry of Health as the National Health Service came into existence. The hospital continued to be well-used throughout the cc1960s and '70s, even though many were now questioning the viability of large, outmoded institutions such as this.
In the early years of the 21st century plans were made to close the old hospital with its echoing corridors and looming shadows. A combination of day care, specialised provision at nearby Llandough Hospital and a small, purpose-built set of wards on the site of the old Harvey Jones Adolescent Unit would be in the best interests of patients and staff.
The hospital was absorbed into the National Health Service in cc1948.
The hospital’s role began to change in the mid-cc1980s - when care in the community began to reduce the number of resident patients. By the early cc2000s the hospital was considered unsuitable for the requirements of 21st century psychiatry. Services were gradually moved out to either new purpose built facilities or into the community. Whitchurch Hospital finally closed its doors to business and care in April cc2016.