Iconic Surrey asylum demolished
One of the last remaining buildings that once made up the UK's largest psychiatric hospital complex is being demolished this week.
The last part of the demolition of the West Park Hospital site in Epsom, Surrey is now taking place, as developers seek to clear the site to make way of a new housing development.
Some of the most striking constructions on the site - including the central tower and some of the more ornate buildings - are being retained, and incorporated into the new development.
Historian and broadcaster, Nick Barratt, who lives nearby said it is sad to see the history of the site disappear, but the ruins of the hospital - which was first completed during World War I - had been causing increasing problems recently.
"The Epsom Cluster is one of the last remnants of a bygone ere when health care and particularly mental health care was paramount in peoples' minds," he said.
"Mental hospitals were built with the wellbeing of the patients in mind. They weren't just there to be treated, but to be protected from the world, and so a lot of thought and care was put into these institutions."
The slow decommissioning of the hospital began in the 1960s. It had recently become a target for arsonists and so-called 'urban explorers' but the developers made sure to take comprehensive photographic records of the hospital to keep for the history books.
