page_title: Friern Hospital
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: Friern Hospital / History / Early history
caption_attribution_description: Entertainment to the patients at the Middlesex County Lunatic Asylum, Colney Hatch. General Collections Keywords: Institutions; Hospitals
context_page_description: Friern Hospital was a psychiatric hospital in the parish of Friern Barnet close to a crossroads which had a hamlet known as Colney Hatch. In 1965, it became part of the London Borough of Barnet and in the early 21st century was converted to residential housing as Princess Park Manor and Friern Village. The hospital was built as the Second Middlesex County Asylum and was in operation from 1851 to 1993. After the County of London was created in 1889 it continued to serve much of Middlesex and of the newer county, London. During much of this time its smaller prototype Hanwell Asylum also operated.
  At its height, Colney Hatch was home to 2,500 mental patients and had the longest corridor in Britain. For much of the 20th century, its name was synonymous among Londoners with any mental institution.
  The asylum with its surrounding fields, gardens and recreation grounds adjoined Friern Barnet Road and is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1868–1883, which labels the nascent settlement of New Southgate under a popular developers' name Colney Hatch Park. Today that larger community is the core area of New Southgate in the London Borough of Enfield.
context_section_description: The building of Friern Hospital was commissioned by the Middlesex Court of Magistrates, as the Second Middlesex County Asylum. The site was the former Hollick Wood, Colney Hatch. The architect was Samuel Daukes, whose Italianate corridor-plan design was based on the advice of John Conolly, the superintendent of the First Middlesex County Asylum. The foundation stone was laid by the Prince Consort in 1849, and the building was completed in November 1850. The cost of building had been estimated at £150,000, but the final cost actually proved to be £300,000, making it the most expensive asylum ever built, at £240 per bed. The estate had its own water supply, a chapel, cemetery and a 75-acre farm estate. It also had a gasworks, brewery, and an aviary where canaries were bred.
  The asylum was opened on 17 July 1851 by Prince Albert with William Charles Hood (1824–1870) being its first medical superintendent.
  In 1857 extensions were built to bring the total number of inmates to 2,000. By this time, serious defects of construction had become apparent: in one ward the walls and rafters separated and the arched ceiling gave way while in another ward part of the ceiling collapsed. It was found that the roof was insufficient and that the foundations were insecure, necessitating reinforcement works in 1858.
  Further extensions were added from 1875 to 1879, and by 1880 conditions for inmates had become very poor. In 1896, a temporary building of wood and corrugated iron was erected to house 320 chronic and infirm female patients in five dormitories, despite warnings from the Commissioners in Lunacy that this would pose a serious fire risk.
  In 1889 control of the asylum was transferred to the newly formed London County Council.
caption: Entertainment for patients at Middlesex County Asylum, 1853
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