Stone House Asylum
On the edge of Dartford in Kent is the impressive site of Stone House Asylum. Constructed following the Commissioners of Lunacy's insistence that the city of London provided its own asylum for pauper lunatics, who had previously been sent to Bethlem Asylum in Lambeth. The Commissioners discouraged the use of voluntary asylums for pauper patients and despite the low number of such patients in the City area, a site at Stone, near Dartford was purchased and the building erected for 220 patients which opened in 1866. Declining numbers of pauper admissions led to excess space being used to take out of area cases and later private, fee paying patients (from 1892). The renumerative nature of this work allowed further additions around the turn of the century.
From 1924 the asylum was renamed the City of London Mental Hospital, then later became Stone House hospital on transferral to the National Health Service in 1948. Prior to transferral to NHS over half of the population of nearly 600, were private patients. Only 50 patients were actually from the City of London , with the remainder coming from other authorities. The hospital catchment area later took in local patients, from Dartford and Gravesend districts. It closed its doors and re housed its patients in 2005 and since then its remained derelict apart from the odd use by police officers and dogs for training. Most recently it got given the go ahead for redevelopment into residential apartments and work has already started. Its by no means the most grand asylum there is but its certainly was one of the best preserved asylums evading arson, metal theft and chavy mindless violence, probably due to that bloody fence and being surrounded by homes on 2 sides oh and the secca!
The solo explore was kinda off the cuff as i had nothing much planned for the day and its 5 mins in the car. A whole 7 hours later i think ive seen pretty much every inch of this place. Work is progressing towards the main hall (the touristy bit) rapidly so if your planning a visit id make it sooner than later.
Photos are unedited and were taken on my newly acquired canon 350dslr with out a tripod and me not knowing how to use a camera. My apologies if their not perfect but for me its all about getting out there and seeing these places.
On with the pictures.
On the edge of Dartford in Kent is the impressive site of Stone House Asylum. Constructed following the Commissioners of Lunacy's insistence that the city of London provided its own asylum for pauper lunatics, who had previously been sent to Bethlem Asylum in Lambeth. The Commissioners discouraged the use of voluntary asylums for pauper patients and despite the low number of such patients in the City area, a site at Stone, near Dartford was purchased and the building erected for 220 patients which opened in 1866. Declining numbers of pauper admissions led to excess space being used to take out of area cases and later private, fee paying patients (from 1892). The renumerative nature of this work allowed further additions around the turn of the century.
From 1924 the asylum was renamed the City of London Mental Hospital, then later became Stone House hospital on transferral to the National Health Service in 1948. Prior to transferral to NHS over half of the population of nearly 600, were private patients. Only 50 patients were actually from the City of London , with the remainder coming from other authorities. The hospital catchment area later took in local patients, from Dartford and Gravesend districts. It closed its doors and re housed its patients in 2005 and since then its remained derelict apart from the odd use by police officers and dogs for training. Most recently it got given the go ahead for redevelopment into residential apartments and work has already started. Its by no means the most grand asylum there is but its certainly was one of the best preserved asylums evading arson, metal theft and chavy mindless violence, probably due to that bloody fence and being surrounded by homes on 2 sides oh and the secca!
The solo explore was kinda off the cuff as i had nothing much planned for the day and its 5 mins in the car. A whole 7 hours later i think ive seen pretty much every inch of this place. Work is progressing towards the main hall (the touristy bit) rapidly so if your planning a visit id make it sooner than later.
Photos are unedited and were taken on my newly acquired canon 350dslr with out a tripod and me not knowing how to use a camera. My apologies if their not perfect but for me its all about getting out there and seeing these places.
On with the pictures.
