Royal Earlswood Asylum former Victoria Court

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The Royal Earlswood Hospital or The Royal Earlswood Asylum in Redhill, Surrey, England was the first establishment to cater specifically for people with learning disabilities. Previously they had been housed either in asylums for the mentally ill or in workhouses. Around 1847, Ann Serena Plumbe took an interest in the plight of the learning disabled, or idiots as they were termed at the time, and began to discuss what could be done to assist them. In discussion with Dr John Conolly (of the Hanwell Asylum) and Rev Dr Andrew Reed (a philanthropist and founder of several orphanages) they determined to educate such people. In the spring of 1847 Reed toured Europe to gather information on institutions serving the purpose, and in October the project to found the Asylum began. Lord Palmerston, Baron Rothschild and Lord Ashley became officers of the charity. In 1848 a building was purchased and the first patients admitted. This building, Park House at Highgate, quickly proved to be too small and a new building was commissioned. Several designs were submitted in competition and a Mr. Moffat's was chosen. The builder was John Jay of London Wall, whose varied work included substantial railway construction contracts, rebuilding the Houses of Parliament after the 1833 fire, and smaller architect-designed projects such as the Abney Park Chapel and Trinity Independent Chapel. The building was entirely financed by public subscription and Queen Victoria subscribed 250 guineas in the name of Edward Prince of Wales, who became a life member. Prince Albert took a special interest from the beginning. He laid the foundation stone in June 1853 and The Royal Earlswood's first residents moved in on April 15, 1855, and the official opening day was July 5th that year. Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, officiated. An exhibition of the hospital memorabilia can be seen at a museum in Teddington, Middlesex. • In 1862 Queen Victoria conferred a Royal Charter on the asylum. • John Langdon Down (after whom Down's syndrome was named) was medical superintendent of the hospital from 1855 to 1868. • At this time patients slept in fifteen-bed dormitories and there was one member of staff to each seven patients. • Tuberculosis accounted for the majority of deaths in the institution. Patients were taught manual trades such as carpentry, printing and brush-making, as well as domestic, garden and farm duties. On 5 July 1958 the hospital ceased to be a charitable trust and was absorbed into the National Health Service. • A notable inmate was James Henry Pullen who carved wonderful works of art and built detailed models, including one of Brunel's Great Eastern. For several decades, Katherine and Nerissa Bowes-Lyon, who were nieces of the Queen Mother and first cousins of HM The Queen, lived in the hospital; • A cousin of the Queen who spent 55 years of her life being cared for at the Royal Earlswood Hospital, in Redhill, has died. • Katherine Bowes-Lyon died, aged 87, on February 23rd 2014. • A private family funeral was held. It is believed Miss Bowes-Lyon lived at a care home in Surrey since the closure of the Royal Earlswood Hospital in 1997. She began her residency at the hospital – now converted to luxury apartments – in 1941, when she was 14. Miss Bowes-Lyon and her sister, Nerissa, were two of the daughters of John Herbert Bowes-Lyon and his wife Fenella. As John was the brother of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the Queen Mother, the two daughters were first cousins of Queen Elizabeth II, sharing one pair of grandparents – Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, and Nina Bowes-Lyon, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne. The Royal Earlswood Hospital provided accommodation for some 230 men and women affected by mental illness at the time of its closure. Katherine Bowes-Lyon was placed in the hospital, in Asylum Arch Road, Earlswood Common, along with her sister Nerissa and three of their cousins – Idonea, Ethelreda and Rosemary Fane – during the Second World War. Nerissa died on January 22, 1986 aged 66. She was buried in a humble plot at Redstone Cemetery, Redhill. By the Surrey Mirror | Posted: April 03, 2014. The hospital closed in 1997, as part of the Government's long-term plan to transfer the care of people with learning disabilities into the community, and was converted into apartments: the development is called Royal Earlswood Park the main building is now called Victoria Court. A number of the buildings are listed buildings: the main building, the workshop, and the two gate lodges. • Nice And Easy by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...) • Artist: http://audionautix.com/ • Royal Earlswood Hospital c.1854 • Edmund Evans - Illustrated London News, March 11, 1854; pg. 213; Issue 672 w:Royal Earlswood Hospital engraving by w:Edmund Evans (1826 – 1905) Public Domain File:Royal earlswood hospital.jpg Uploaded by Iantresman Created: 14 November 2011

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