Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum

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Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum (or Friern Hospital) was a hospital located in Colney Hatch in what is now the London Borough of Barnet. It was in operation from 1851 to 1993. At its height the asylum was home to 3,500 mental patients and had the longest corridor in Britain, and hence, its name was synonymous among Londoners with any mental institution.

The Lunatic Asylum was located on Friern Barnet Road at grid reference TQ283922. It is shown on this Victorian Ordnance Survey map of 1876-1881 which marks Colney Hatch Park in the area centered on Springfield Road in New Southgate, in the London Borough of Enfield. The asylum itself was further west in what is now generally called Friern Barnet, in the London Borough of Barnet.

[edit] History

Originally plans were made and land purchased for this asylum to built close to the existing 1^st Middlesex County Asylum at Hanwell on ground that lays just on the other side of the Grand Union Canal. Perhaps the number of other asylums already in the area lead to the decision to have it built else where.

It opened on the 17th of July 1851 and was officially referred to as the 2^nd Middlesex County Asylum with William Charles Hood (1824-1870) being its first medical superintendent.^[1]

In 1889 its control was transferred to the London County Council. It became known as the Colney Hatch Mental Hospital in 1918 until it was renamed Friern Mental Hospital in 1937, the name later changing simply to Friern Hospital in 1959. After a long period of decline the hospital finally closed in 1993 and the building was converted into luxury flats under the name Princess Park Manor. While much of the hospital's grounds were also sold off for building, much also remains in public hands and is accessible to anyone.