History

icon 1889

London County Council is formed

The county of London came into being as part of reforms to local goverment implemented in 1889. Formed from a large area of the County of Middlesex, as well as the parts of Surrey and Kent into which London was expanding, the intention had been to provide a unified administrative body for London with the exclusion of the City itself.

On its inception, the London County Council assumed responsibility for all three of Middlesex's existing asylums at Hanwell (St.Bernard's), Colney Hatch (Friern) and Banstead, as well as the planned Claybury asylum.

Surrey's recently constructed Cane Hill asylum was also included. As patients within the catchment also became the responsibility of the new council, the existing asylums were already full to overcrowding - a situation briefly rectified with the addition of Claybury and later Bexley asylums. At times of severe shortage, the Metropolitan asylums board Imbecile asylums took excess chronic patients as well as others boarded out to other county asylums.

In an attempt to provide a permanent solution to future needs, the large Horton Manor estate near Epsom was purchased and could accommodate a number of separate institutions. Once purchased a temporary asylum was immediately erected around the existing mansion buildings, with three other asylums gradually developed on park and estate farmland to keep accommodation in pace with the expansion of London itself. A separate colony for male epileptics was also built to the north.