Album of photographs depicting Stone House Hospital. Dartford, 1910-1923.

[1910-1923]

1 photograph album (93 photographs) : gelatin silver prints ; album (closed) 8.2 x 31 x 23.4 cm ; prints 20 x 15 cm

Wellcome Collection 3017246i

Title and date taken from accompanying literature from dealer at point of acquisition in 2018.

Stone House Hospital (originally known as the City of London Pauper Lunatic Asylum) was built between 1862 and 1866 to provide care for mentally ill patients in London who were unable to pay for their own treatment. Stone House’s grounds, were expanded over time to encompass 140 acres and from 1880 included a working farm, which aimed to provide a healthy outdoor working environment for patients. Later additions included an expanded female wing and a separate building for patients with infectious diseases. Private patients were admitted to the hospital from 1892 at a cost of £1 per week. They were kept in separate wards, allowed to wear their own clothes and received better quality food. The incomed generated form the admission of private patients funded further improvements and extensions to Stonehouse into the twentieth century. The hospital became known as City of London Mental Hospital from 1924 and Stone House Hospital from 1948. It was eventually closed in 2005. (Information taken from dealer's literature, dartfordhospitalhistories.org.uk and lma.gov.uk).

Film footage of Dartford Women Fire Brigade training at Stone House Hospital is held by the British Pathe archive https://www.britishpathe.com/video/women-fire-fighters/query/dartford+fire

The album offers an overview of Stone House's architecture, facilities and layout. It includes interior views of the hospitals' dining hall, recreation room, nursing corridor, engine room and chapel. External views show Stone House’s Tudor revival exterior, the female hospital block, the Superintendent’s house and various views of the hospital’s grounds and gardens. From the photograph’s handwritten captions, it is apparent much of the hospital’s outdoors space was segregated into male and female areas. Various prints show patients engaged in organised leisure activities and celebrations, such as a team cricket and hockey, aboard a minibus about to depart on a picnic outing and a patient and staff fancy dress party. One of the images of the sports teams is captioned ‘convalescent soldiers cricket team July 3rd 1915' and probably features soldiers experiencing psychological difficulties as a result of fighting in World War One. Of special note are the prints which portray a training exercise of the Dartford Women’s Fire Brigade held at the hospital. They date from c. 1914-1918, when women began to fill roles created through the large numbers of men being conscripted into fighting for WW1. (Information taken from dealer's literature, dartfordhospitalhistories.org.uk and lma.gov.uk)

Stone House Hospital was closed in 2005 and the buildings remained empty for around seven years before permission was given for the redevelopment of the site for housing. (Information taken from https://historic-hospitals.com/2016/10/09/stone-house-hospital-dartford-now-the-residence/)