Medical dates:

Medical character:

In 1937, after the death of its owner, Lord Marshall (once the Lord Mayor of London), Shabden Park and its 40-acre estate were purchased by Surrey County Council for £2,795.

The Shabden Park Home opened in March 1938 as a 'temporary' Council care home for chronically ill elderly females.  The spacious mansion had a wide view over parkland.  It had a wide wooden staircase, but no lift.  Therefore, the more mobile patients were accommodated on the ground floor, where they would have access to the gardens, while the permanently bedfast occupied the upper floor.

During WW2 the Home joined the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) under the control of King's College Hospital.  It had 48 beds and 29 EMS beds for the use of civilian and military war casualties.

In 1944 plans were made to extend the accommodation and to convert the Home into a Sanatorium for TB patients, but nothing came of this.

In 1948 the Home joined the NHS under the administration of the Epsom Group Hospital Management Committee, part of the South West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board.  It became an annexe of Epsom District Hospital and was renamed Shabden Park Hospital.  It had 50 beds (of which 42 were staffed) for chronically sick female patients.  By 1949 44 of 52 beds were open.

In 1950 the Hospital had 56 beds.  The average bed occupancy was 43.

In 1955 the average bed occupancy was 98%.  The weekly cost of an in-patient was £6 5s 7d (£6.28).

By 1960 the Hospital had 60 beds.  The average stay for patients was one year, at a weekly cost of  £10 9s 4d (£10.47).  Bed occupancy was at an average of 93%.

In 1965 the average bed occupancy was 98%.  The weekly cost of an in-patient was £16 1s 2d (£16.06).

In 1966 the wooded land to the rear of the Hospital was sold to Surrey County Council.

In 1975 the South West Thames Regional Health Authority decided that the 19th century mansion did not conform to modern fire and safety regulations (it would have been difficult to save many patients on the upper floor in the event of a fire) and the premises were no longer suitable for hospital use.

The Hospital closed in 1976 with 54 beds.  The patients were transferred to West Park Hospital.

Present status (February 2009)

The mansion house was sold to a property developer in the early 1980s and was subsequently subdivided into a number of 4- to 5-bedroomed luxury apartments.  Each of these, as well as the separate lodges, were given a part of the grounds as its own garden area.

Much of the rolling grounds of the original estate are now a public park run by Surrey Wildlife Trust Countryside Services.