Herrison Hospital

The hospital, which was designed by Henry Edward Kendall Jr. using a Corridor Plan layout, opened as the Dorset County Asylum in 1863.[1] A female annex, designed by George Thomas Hine, was added in 1896 and a private asylum for fee paying patients, known as Herrison House and also designed by Hine, was added in 1904.[1] The facility became the Dorset County Mental Hospital in 1920 and Herrison Hospital in 1940 before joining the National Health Service in 1948.[2]

After the introduction of Care in the Community in the early 1980s, the hospital went into a period of decline and closed in January 1992.[1] The site was subsequently developed for residential use as Charlton Down.[1] Three of the larger buildings — Redwood (the main structure built in 1863), Greenwood (the female annex built in 1896) and Herrison House (the private asylum built in 1904) — have been converted into apartments.[1]