Park Prewett
Encyclopedia
Park Prewett Hospital, also known as Park Prewett Mental Hospital, was a psychiatric hospital northwest of Basingstoke
Basingstoke
Basingstoke is a town in northeast Hampshire, in south central England. It lies across a valley at the source of the River Loddon. It is southwest of London, northeast of Southampton, southwest of Reading and northeast of the county town, Winchester. In 2008 it had an estimated population of...

, in the county of Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

 in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, which operated from 1917 until 1997. The hospital was designed by the noted asylum architect George T. Hine.
It was served by its own railway line from 1913 until 1954 from Basingstoke Station.

The land on which Park Prewett Hospital stands was originally part of the Park Prewett Farm. Park Prewett [Prevet] was an enclosure dating back to the time of Edward I. It now lies within the newly formed parish of Rooksdown
Rooksdown
Rooksdown is a civil parish in the Basingstoke and Deane district of Hampshire, England. The parish was formed on 1 April 2004. It covers a small estate in the north-west of Basingstoke which was previously part of the parish of Sherborne St...

.

Due to the intervention of the first world war, the building was first used by the Canadians as a military hospital. Park Prewett opened as a mental hospital in 1921 and by 1936 catered for 1,400 patients. The hospital returned to military use again during World War II. Part of the hospital - Rooksdown House - was used by Sir Harold Gillies
Harold Gillies
Sir Harold Delf Gillies was a New Zealand-born, and later London based, otolaryngologist who is widely considered as the father of plastic surgery.-Personal life:Gillies was born in Dunedin, New Zealand...

, the pioneering plastic surgeon.

In the late 1990s, the hospital's hall was used as a rave
Rave
Rave, rave dance, and rave party are parties that originated mostly from acid house parties, which featured fast-paced electronic music and light shows. At these parties people dance and socialize to dance music played by disc jockeys and occasionally live performers...

 venue.

Park Prewett was bought by English Partnerships
English Partnerships
English Partnerships was the national regeneration agency for England, performing a similar role on a national level to that fulfilled by Regional Development Agencies on a regional level...

 in 2005. They have licensed developers Taylor Woodrow
Taylor Woodrow
Taylor Woodrow was one of the largest British housebuilding and general construction companies. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but merged with rival George Wimpey to create Taylor Wimpey on 3 July 2007.-Early years:Frank Taylor was...

for most new building on the site, and Thomas Homes for conversion of many of the old hospital blocks into housing and community facilities.
The new housing development is called "Limes Park".

External links

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