MUNICIPAL HOSPITALS

THE 'EPSOM CLUSTER'

It had been the original intention to build six institutions on the 1000-acre Horton Manor estate, each with accommodation for 2000 patients but, in the event, only five were built.

The first was the Manor Asylum for 700 female lunatics, which opened in 1899.  The second, for 2000 lunatics, was the Horton Asylum, opening in 1902, an exact replica of Bexley Asylum.  The third, which opened in 1903, was not classified as a mental asylum, but as an epileptic colony.  It was the first villa-type of mental institution provided in London.  Original known as the Ewell Epileptic Colony, it was later renamed St Ebba's Hospital.  
Long Grove Asylum opened in 1907 and West Park Asylum, delayed by WW1,  in 1921.

The Horton Manor estate held the largest cluster of mental asylums in the world.  The asylums shared a central 'engineering works' next to Long Grove Asylum, which supplied all five establishments with water (hot and cold) and electricity.

Thus, by 1924, the LCC had built seven more hospitals for the mentally ill and a special hospital - the Maudsley Hospital - opened in 1923 for voluntary mental patients.  

The Mental Treatment Act, 1930, enabled public mental hospitals to receive voluntary patients for the first time.


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