Holloway Sanatorium

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Holloway Sanatorium was a hospital for the treatment of the insane, located on 24 acres of parkland near the town of Virginia Water, Surrey, within the boundary of the Greater London Urban Area, about 22 miles (35 km) south-west of the geographic centre of London.

It was conceived by the wealthy philanthropist Thomas Holloway, designed in an elaborate Franco-Gothic style by W. H. Crossland, and built between 1873 and 1885. In 1948 it was transferred to the National Health Service. In the year 2000, after a period in which it had been neglected, it became a gated housing development with many of the original features preserved under the direction of English Heritage.

[edit] Brief History

The site of Holloway Sanatorium is the present 'Virginia Park' development in Virginia Water, on the west side of Stroude Road and to the north of the railway station. It was one of two important symbols of the vision of the Victorian multi-millionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist, Thomas Holloway (1800-1883): the other being the nearby Royal Holloway College in Egham, Surrey (now Royal Holloway, University of London) which was opened two years later. Like the College, the Sanatorium was an extraordinary and extensive building, founded and personally funded by Holloway as a 'Gift to the Nation', and it was the fruit of the partnership between Holloway and his principal architect William Henry Crossland (1835-1908). The architecture was inspired by the gothic styles of the Cloth Hall of Ypres in Belgium with its conspicuous tower, and the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. Work started on the building of the Sanatorium in 1873. The institution, 'a hospital for the insane of the middle class', was opened by the Prince and Princess of Wales (later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra) in 1885. There were 73 certified patients admitted in the first year, and the number increased steadily so that in 1892 it already exceeded its capacity for 600 patients. A board of trustees managed the Sanatorium until it passed to the National Health Service in 1948. After becoming redundant to the NHS in 1981, it became derelict, vandalised and pillaged for the next 12 years. In 1994 the Sanatorium was re-developed, and to a great extent restored, to become in the year 2000 a gated residential estate.

[edit] Thomas Holloway’s philanthropy

Thomas Holloway was a Victorian entrepreneur who made a fortune from the sale of his patent medicines, pills and ointments, designed to cure all ills. Where Holloway differed from other 'quack medicine' vendors was that he was one of the earliest entrepreneurs to appreciate the value of advertising: he spent huge amounts of money promoting his cures throughout the world and, as a result, reaped huge rewards.

Looking for ways in which to spend his fortune, Holloway turned to philanthropy, and became a champion of progressive mental health care. George III's madness had excited public opinion about the correct and humane treatment for the insane. Therefore on 19th April 1861 Holloway attended a public meeting at the London Freemasons’ Hall in which Lord Shaftesbury, sincerely concerned with mental health, made a magnificent speech, crusading for funds for the foundation of an asylum for the middle-class insane. Lord Shaftesbury appealed for £5,000 and received immediately contributions totalling £760, though none from Holloway. But Holloway was impressed, and Shaftesbury must have been surprised to receive a letter from Holloway’s solicitor three years later announcing “a gentleman who is possessed of nearly a quarter of a million” and wished to see him with a view to disposing of that sum “for charitable uses”. The outcome was meeting between Holloway and Shaftesbury on 25th May 1864, when he resolved to spend out some of his fortune on the establishment of a Sanatorium for the mentally sick of the middle classes “the professional breadwinner whose income ceases when he is unable to work”. While pauper asylums gave refuge for the insane of the poorer classes, and care at private establishments could be bought by the rich, the middle classes neither deserved the former nor could afford the latter. Charity for the poor demeaned its recipients: as far as possible people should be assisted to help themselves. The proposed asylum was not intended for the permanently insane, but as a refuge in which the temporarily deranged should be assisted to resume their working lives. At that meeting Holloway told Shaftesbury that he intended to spend his fortune of a single building and a single benefaction.

[edit] Holloway initiates the Design

It was not until 1872 that Holloway had a meeting with the Commissioners in Lunacy, who entered warmly into his plans and promised every assistance to produce a model building. Whilst he seemed to have had some quite fixed feelings about architectural style he was no expert, and he was assisted by Professor Donaldson and T. H. Wyatt (who were architects for the Commissioners in Lunacy). Thomas Leverton Donaldson (1795-1885) was one of the foremost members of the architectural profession, the first Professor of Architecture at University College London, co-founder of the R.I.B.A., and its President in 1863-4. Thomas Henry Wyatt (1807-1880) was another distinguished architect, who had been President of the R.I.B.A. in 1870. Both Donaldson and Wyatt received some recompense for their services, the former 100 guineas and the latter 25 guineas. Holloway had a third advisor, George Godwin, the editor of The Builder. Holloway's initial idea was that the design of the building should be purely Italian, modelled on the river frontage of Somerset House. However, by October 1871 he had had a change of heart and wrote to Donaldson: “You will see that I have gone into the grand old Flemish style. I know that your taste is classical and which I greatly admire, but perhaps all things considered the Gothic would be most appropriate, as we can get red brick in the neighbourhood and a large building in the Italian style ought, I believe, to have stone facings”.

[edit] Competition for the Plan

The Commissioners suggested that the best results would be obtained by submitting the plans to a competition of a limited number of architects. In September 1871 Holloway held the competition with the result that ten architects submitted eleven plans for the asylum. The architects who responded to the invitation to submit designs for the asylum were Crossland, Salomons & Jones; Alfred Smith; T. Roger Smith; Richard Phene Spiers; John P Seddon; J. S. Quilter; T. H. Watson; E. W. Godwin (two designs); F. & H. Francis and Thomas C. Hine. The winning entry, with a first premium award of £200, was by Crossland, Salomons and Jones. Alfred Smith was awarded the second premium of £100 and all the others received £50 for their trouble, except Hine, a Nottingham architect, who received only £25: possibly he had not actually been invited to submit a plan. The moneys were paid out in July 1872, and in August 1872 the plans were placed on exhibition in the Regent Street gallery of E. Freeman.

[edit] The Architect: William Henry Crossland

William Henry Crossland later recalled that he had not wished to go into the competition on his own and had sought the assistance of the distinguished Irish architect John Philpot Jones. Edward Salomons (1827-1906) practised in Manchester where he and Jones had designed the Reform Club in 1870. It is possible that the two had met in Rochdale in 1866 when Crossland was engaged on the Town Hall and Salomons on the town's theatre. Crossland planned it to look like the Cloth Hall at Ypres (having tried this design the previous year in the building of Rochdale Town Hall) and the Great Hall was designed in the style of the gothic La Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. Jones, who had most of the work on the asylum design, died soon after the foundation stone was laid and Crossland records that most of the work then fell to him, Salomons being in Manchester. Crossland received commission of £7,620 – without travelling expenses for himself or his staff.

[edit] The Site: Virginia Water

In Victorian times many hospitals were built on spacious grounds in urban as well as rural locations, not only because more land was available, but also because space had therapeutic and practical value: "An asylum should be placed on elevated ground and should command cheerful prospects, should be surrounded with land sufficient to afford outdoor employment for males, and exercise for all patients, and to protect them from being overlooked or disturbed by strangers." This was the view of the Commissioners in Lunacy, quoted by an architecture researcher from York University, Robert Mayo, in a report for the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.

A site was chosen, north of the town of Virginia Water, high on St. Ann’s Heath, part of his own land. Holloway wanted the Sanatorium to be visible from a railway: it certainly was, between Stoude Road and the straight northbound track from Virginia Water railway station. Work on the building began in the Spring of 1873, when a clerk of works was appointed. Holloway’s wife, Jane, laid the first brick. Crossland received his first commission payment of £300 on 2nd March 1874. Once started, Holloway was determined that building should go forward apace. When his plan for the use of Portland stone in place of ornamental brickwork was not allowed to stand, Crossland had to set aside all his carefully planned working and detail drawings and hurriedly draw up alternatives as they were required by the masons.

[edit] The Building of the Sanatorium

The first clerk of works was J. P. Featherstone who had been a tenant farmer under Holloway: he was appointed in April 1873 and resigned on 24th December 1876. Among the contractors were: Sharpington & Cole, London (Masons); W. H. Lascelles, Finsbury (Joiner); George Burfoot, Windsor (Paving); Pontifex & Wood, London (Lead); ]]Wilson W. Phipson]] (Heating); J. Gibson, Battersea (Landscaping); J. D. Richards, London (Furnishings). Ancillary works included the gas works at a cost of £1,950, six cottages and a workshop, and the sewage works which were constructed by John Thompson of Peterborough at a cost of £1,500.

There was a very large workforce on the site. The building accounts of the sanatorium include costs of advertising for masons, not only locally in Surrey and Berkshire, but from as far as Birmingham and Manchester. Holloway worked supervising the project closely until prevented by illness. He died on Boxing Day 1883, eighteen months before the Sanatorium was opened. By the time the institution was ready to admit patients, new regulations had come into force, and Crossland had to revise the internal arrangements to comply with the new safety regulations. Interior decoration was lavish: the great recreation hall with its magnificent beamed roof designed by Crossland was decorated by the Scottish architect and designer John Moyr Smith at a cost of £400.

[edit] Contemporary Account

A contemporary account of the sanatorium is of interest. It is probable that much of the content came from Crossland and Holloway: the latter must have been pleased with the report for he subsequently sent a monetary gift to the author.

• On alighting at the Virginia Water Station of the London and South Western Railway the traveller becomes aware of a tall tower recalling to his mind the outline of the famous belfry tower of Ypres. In guide-books the magnificent tower of Les Halles in the old Flemish town which is said to have given its name to "diaper" fabrics, is comically referred to as "reminding one of the Victoria Tower, Westminster." As a matter of fact the Ypres tower is of very fine thirteenth-century work and has served as a model for many towers of later construction, including that of the Holloway Sanatorium. The chief difference between the latter and its prototype is that it is of red brick with stone dressing, while the ancient tower which looks down on the grave of Jansenius is of stone throughout. Built on the top of a slight eminence the Holloway Sanatorium, with its tower standing in pleasure grounds 22 acres in extent, is a conspicuous object in the richly-wooded country which inspired Sir John Denham with some of his finest verses.

• Commenced some seven years ago by Mr Thomas Holloway, the Sanatorium for Curable Cases of Mental Disease was originally intended by the founder as a gift to the nation, perfect and complete as it stood. Mr Holloway has resolved not only to make a gift of the building, but to invest an additional £50,000 as an endowment, which will raise the cost of the whole foundation to £350,000. The purpose for which it is designed is clearly defined by the founder to be the succour of persons of the middle-class afflicted with mental disease. In selecting this object he has been guided by the consideration that rich people so unfortunate as to suffer from mental disease need no monetary assistance; and the poor in a similar mental condition are already cared for in public asylums. Put broadly, the scope of the Holloway Sanatorium includes the doctor, lawyer, artist, clerk or any professional bread-winner whose work cannot, like an ordinary business, be carried on by deputy, and whose income ceases absolutely when he is unable to work. This definition has not been arrived at without due care and ample investigation. Mr George Martin, at the instance of Mr Holloway, and sometimes accompanying him, has visited the principal establishments for the cure of mental disease in Europe and America, and the opinion has been gradually formed that many curable cases among the middle class are allowed to become uncurable from lack of means or opportunity to secure proper treatment. Slight cerebal attacks, if dealt with promptly, may, it is well known, be cured, and a recurrence of them guarded against with considerable success, while if neglected they increase in frequency, until the patient becomes entirely incapacitated from pursuing his calling. It is simply as a curative institution that the handsome structure at Virginia Water has been founded, one of the conditions being that no patient will be allowed to remain more than twelve months. By this regulation it will be prevented from becoming an asylum and losing its more important character. It was, as already stated, originally intended to be an entirely self-supporting institution, but Mr Holloway has finally determined to help it with an endowment.
• The extremely handsome appearance of the exterior is amply borne out by the interior decorations and arrangement of the building, which when furnished will be ready at once to receive patients. Built of red brick, dressed with stone, in the style called indifferently Tudor or Early English Renaissance, the effect of the structure is highly creditable to the Architect, Mr W. H. Crossland, whose handsome town hall at Rochdale proves him a worthy pupil of Sir George Gilbert Scott. The front elevation recalls in its general features some of the finer models of the Tudor period, such as Littlecote built before the stern dignity of the Gothic had quite yielded to the grace of the Renaissance. The interior decorations have been designed and executed by various hands, under the direction of Mr George Martin. With the exception of the massive grey marble top of the balustrade, the whole of the entrance hall and staircase is painted and gilt over the stone. This was an afterthought of kindness towards the persons for whom the building is intended, and four hundred of whom it is planned to accommodate. Cold grey columns and walls even if enlivened by sculpture, would, it is thought, sit heavily on a mind diseased, and it was resolved to make the principal apartments one blaze of gold and colour. The hall is accordingly lavishly decorated with figures and designs arabesque and grotesque, the latter displaying almost inexhaustible fertility of invention. If it be sound doctrine that surfaces of wood or stone should be gilt or painted, as the late Mr William Burges ARA., and some other authorities have more or less rigidly maintained, the rich decorations of the Holloway Sanatorium are correct enough. They are certainly gorgeous as well as cheerful and ingenious. The great lecture or recreation hall is remarkable for a splendid gilded roof, and for a profusion of gilding and other decorative work on the walls and behind the platform - the latter being very remarkable. Portraits of distinguished persons by Mr Giradot and other artists form part of the decoration scheme, and add interest to it. In the refectory also - a splendid apartment - the adornments consist of a series of paintings in the style of Watteau forming a frieze, above which are smaller groups in lunettes. Here the scheme of ornament, if hardly so coherent as in the hall, has the advantage aimed at throughout this unique building. Dominated by the idea that a cultivated person whose mind is affected will never be cured if surrounded by vulgar idiots or grim accessories, Mr Martin has endeavoured to introduce as many objects as possible to awake and stimulate the trained intelligence for the moment over-strained. In the smaller but still ample parlours and living rooms the same idea of cheerfulness and suggestiveness is carried out. It is endeavoured above all things to avoid leaving a dimmed intelligence opposite to a blank wall. All the internal arrangements are admirably planned as well for maintaining general health as for isolating special cases of disease, for providing that attendants shall live unobtrusively close to the patients confided to their charge and for conveying an idea of freedom combined with active surveillance. The kitchen is a wonder, and deserves a visit from all interested in the mystery of cooking food for five hundred or more persons at once. To make all complete there is a model laundry in an entirely separate building and pretty red brick houses have been built for such of the staff of the establishment as are not obliged to sleep in the main building. Just of late a change has been made in the original plan by which it was contemplated to use the immense and beautifully decorated hall as a place of worship; but Mr Holloway has decided on building a distinct chapel, the designs for which have been prepared by Mr Crossland. Thousands of shrubs and young trees already fill the pleasure grounds. Almost every known hardy variety is represented. Through those well-planted shrubberies winding walks conduct to pleasant points of view and back to an extensive terrace on which patients may sit or promenade, and enjoy the sunshine and pure air.

[edit] The Opening - a contemporary account

The Sanatorium was opened by the Prince and Princess of Wales (later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra) in 1885. The Prince brought a party of friends over from the Ascot Races for the ceremony.

Mr. Martin-Holloway, who delivered the opening address, was Thomas Holloway's brother-in-law George Martin (1833-1895), who had married Sarah Anne Driver the sister of Jane Holloway. George and his brother Henry assisted Thomas Holloway in the foundation of the Sanatorium and Royal Holloway College. After Thomas Holloway died George assumed the additional name of Holloway, and was knighted in 1887.^[1] Henry assumed the name Driver-Holloway.

THE HOLLOWAY SANATORIUM, VIRGINIA WATER ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... from The Illustrated London News, June 20, 1885 1. Entrance-hall for patients. 2. Turkish-bath rooms. 3. The Chapel. 4. Recreation-hall. 5. Patients' villa. 6. Dr. Phillips' house. 7. One of the sitting-rooms.

The Illustrated London News reported:

...the building containing about 600 rooms, disposed on four floors, and capable of accommodating about 250 patients. The expense hitherto incurred is about £300,000.

The opening ceremony was in the large hall, which is to be used for concerts and other entertainments. The Royal party having taken their places on the platform, Mr. Martin-Holloway delivered a brief address, explaining that all the internal arrangements of the Sanatorium are planned for maintaining general health, for isolating special cases of disease, for enabling the attendants to live unobstrusively close to their patients, and for giving the patients an idea of freedom combined with active surveillance. The Prince of Wales briefly replied; and the guests dispersed to enjoy the hospitality of their host in dining-rooms and tents. The arrangements, which were in the charge of Mr. Trendell, were perfectly successful. The Sanatorium is ready for immediate occupation; and we believe that some patients were in the establishment this week. It is available only for curable cases of insanity; and the fees paid by patients will depend upon the amount of accommodation they require. Applications for half the possible number of admissions have been already accepted, and by the end of the year it s expected that the Sanatorium will be full.

[edit] Staff and patients

The first Medical Superintendent was Dr. Sutherland Rees Phipps.

In the early years of the sanatorium, nurses and domestic staff lived on the premises. There were 73 certified patients admitted in 1885, the first year. The 1891 census ^[2] lists 314 patients (including boarders) and 147 resident staff (medical, attendants and domestic). In 1901 ^[3]there were 384 patients and 210 resident staff. The censuses do not record other staff who came to work then returned home every day.

Case Books were kept, with each patient being given a reference number. For the 40 years 1885-1924 there were 4902 female patients, and for a similar period there about the same number of male patients.

By 1929 the number of patients and staff had increased so much that a Nurses’ Home was built in nearby Sandy Lane at a cost of £22,000.

In 1934 the steward (administration manager) was Jacob Jarvis Robertson and his assistants Mr. Harrison and Philip Bishop; and they were responsible for general management, provision of food and the keeping of household inventories.

[edit] Wards

The following names have been found

• Clouston
• Connolly
• Craig
• Dale
• Gillespie
• Henderson
• Jane Holloway
• Thomas Holloway
• Jackson
• Lister 1
• Lister 2
• Florence Nightingale
• Rush
• Sherrington
• Tuke

[edit] Life in the Sanatorium

The sanatorium was run along the lines of an English country house at the turn of the century. There was elegant furniture in the rooms and corridors, the grounds were laid out for strolling, tennis, croquet and cricket; on summer afternoons a band would play for the entertainment of staff, patients and visitors; and there were concert parties in the evenings.

In 1903 lightning struck the roof, causing a small fire and £1,500 worth of damage.

Holloway Sanatorium was ahead in some of the new developments in the mental health field, such as the use of occupational therapy for recovering patients. It was also one of the first hospitals to include photographs of patients with their case notes.

[edit] Association with St. Ann's Hospital

The Sanatorium expanded in time by buying other properties. In 1891 Hove Villa, Brighton was purchased by the Governors as a home where patients could benefit from the fresh seaside air. In 1909 the Scottish architect Robert Weir Schulz (1860-1951) was asked to design a permanent seaside home for the Sanatorium, and so in 1910 St Ann's Hospital at Haven Road, Canford Cliffs, Poole in Dorset, was built and replaced Hove Villa. Named after St. Ann's Heath, the site where Holloway Sanatorium was built, it was opened in 1912, on 14 acres of land, with a porter's lodge and later cottages for the chauffeurs. In 1948 Holloway Sanatorium and St. Ann's, both then psychiatric hospitals, formed a group of the South West Metropolian Region of the National Health Service, but in 1960 the hospitals finally dissociated into different administrative groups.

St. Ann's Hospital is a Grade II listed building.

[edit] Lyne Place

Lyne Place, an imposing Regency house with gardens, is located two miles (3 km) south of Virginia Water at Wentworth Park,. Lyne Place had been the home of the Russian philosopher P. D. Ouspensky between 1930 and his death in 1947. It was acquired by the Sanatorium and originally intended to be used for members of staff but was adapted for patients' accommodation in 1950. It has now been developed into luxury apartments.

[edit] After World War II

The management of the Sanatorium passed to the National Health Service on 5th July 1948, and it continued as a hospital. In 1968 it became administratively part of the nearby St Peter's Hospital, Chertsey.

On 8th February 1978 a disastrous fire broke out on the stage of the cinema. The fire spread rapidly, fanned by a strong easterly wind. The patients were calmly escorted from the building and there was only one minor injury. The cinema and three wards 'Clouston', 'Jane Holloway' and 'Thomas Holloway' were completely gutted and the electro-convulsive therapy department and sewing rooms were badly damaged.

The Sanatorium was closed in December 1980 and the remaining patients transferred to St Peter's Isolation Hospital at Staines which became a psycho-geriatric Unit (Holloway Unit).^[4] On 21st July 1981 there was a Sale "Contents of Holloway Sanatorium: antique and period furniture" at Wentworth Auction Galleries. The site was sold by the NHS to a property company which planned to convert it to 120,000 sq ft (11,000 m²). of offices. After the buildings had passed through three owners and two public enquiries, ending up in the hands of a receiver, they remained empty and vandalised for 12 years, becoming completely derelict. Thieves stripped lead from the gutters, resulting in water damage. Development on the cricket pitch at the front of the main black and the demolition of the Medical Superintendant’s House were controversially allowed in the early 1990s, facilitating a rapid start on a restoration and development project by Octagon.

[edit] Development

In 1994, with English Heritage oversight, a scheme by Octagon Developments to salvage this Grade I architectural wonder for the nation was accepted. Octagon spent six years in a punctilious art restoration and conversion project. Craftspeople in various disciplines returned the buildings to very near to the original. The Grand Hall was restored and the main building converted into 23 three- and four-storey town houses. The site became “Virginia Park”, a gated and walled development including 190 new houses and apartments, a spa complex, gymnasium, multi-purpose sports hall and an all-weather tennis court. It was described by English Heritage as one of the largest art-conservation projects in Europe. The entrance hall, now fully restored, is a riot of brilliant colours, patterns and grotesque imaginary creatures, and the Grade II listed chapel is now a recreation hall housing a swimming pool beneath its hammerbeam roof.

[edit] References

• Bingham, Caroline, The History of Royal Holloway College, 1886-1986, London: Constable, 1987. ISBN 0094682003 (see pages 30-34)
• Davis, R. & Davis, D., The Virginia Water Picture Book, by Ron and Dorothy Davis, Egham: Egham-by-Runnymede Historical Society at the Egham Museum, 1989. ISBN 0950823465 (Has some beautiful annotated old photographs of Holloway Sanatorium)
• The conversion of Holloway Sanatorium Article by Jane Knowles Psychiatric Bulletin (1997), 21, 232

[edit] Photographs

• Photoeyes Over 80 beautiful photographs of the sumptuous Victorian gothic buildings of Holloway Sanatorium - now Virginia Park - taken in 2007
• Photo by Francis Frith Holloway Sanatorium c1955
• Photo by Francis Frith Holloway Sanatorium c1960
• Archimage Interiors Interior of Holloway Sanatorium
• English Heritage ViewFinder Chapel of Holloway Sanatorium
• English Heritage ViewFinder The hammerbeam roof of the Great Hall of Holloway Sanatorium

[edit] Links

• Every Square Mile Holloway Sanatorium: 19th century philanthropy makes provision for mental health care. Chertsey Museum.
• Dorset Health Care St. Ann's Hospital - see page 6 for history of its link with Holloway Sanatorium.
• Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL The Holloway Sanatorium Scandal of 1895.
• National Register of Archives Holloway Sanatorium: collections at Surrey History Centre and Wellcome Library.
• Edward Law Buildings of William Henry Crossland, Architect. Holloway Sanatorium 1871-1885.

[edit] Footnotes

Coordinates: 51°24′12″N, 0°33′38″W