| Darenth Park Hospital | |
|---|---|
 The Administration Block at Darenth Park Hospital | |
  Location within Kent | |
| Geography | |
| Location | Darenth, Kent, England, United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 51°26′6″N0°15′28″E / 51.43500°N 0.25778°E |
| History | |
| Opened | 18 November 1878 |
| Closed | August 1988 |
| Links | |
| Lists | Hospitals in England |
Darenth Park Hospital was a healthcare facility in Darenth near Dartford in Kent, originally founded as Darenth School.
The hospital was founded by the Metropolitan Asylums Board in Darenth near Dartford in Kent as Darenth School for 500 children with learning disabilities on 18 November 1878. [1] By 1890 it housed over 1,000 children and adults and included Darenth Asylum. By 1911 part of the site has become the Darenth Industrial Trading Colony, and the institution was becoming almost self-sufficient in food production and the manufacture of everyday items, thanks to its ample supply of free labour. [1]
In 1936, as the age and disability levels of residents increased, the name became Darenth Park Hospital, and in 1948 the management was transferred from the London County Council, which had succeeded the Metropolitan Asylums Board in the management of the institution, to the new National Health Service. [1]
The hospital drew patients from a wide catchment of south-east London and Kent. By 1970 the population had grown to 1,500 and the physical conditions in this grim and vast Victorian building were increasingly unacceptable by modern standards. The hospital had over 40 wards, of which 10 contained more than 50 residents. Finally in 1973 the Regional Health Board agreed to close Darenth, but the funding and planning required for such a major undertaking took years to put in place. [1] In the mid-1970s, Diana Spencer, the future Princess of Wales, undertook voluntary work at the hospital. [2]
Darenth Park was the first large regional learning disability institution to close in England as a result of the British government's emerging Care in the Community policy. Audrey Emerton, the South East Thames Regional Chief nursing officer between 1979 and 1990, guided the replacement programme, [3] and from the early 1980s on nearly a thousand residents were resettled to other hospitals, hostels, small group homes and local facilities. In August 1988 the last residents were transferred and the hospital finally shut its doors. [1]
The buildings have been entirely demolished and the new Darent Valley Hospital has been built on part of the site. A 'village' of 300 new houses was also built and the remaining 100 acres became the Darenth Country Park. The only building surviving from the Asylum is at the former Darenth Park Hospital Farm, now used as the Arrow Riding Centre. [4]
The Borough of Dartford is a local government district in the north-west of the county of Kent, England. Its council is based in the town of Dartford. It is part of the contiguous London urban area. It borders the borough of Gravesham to the east, Sevenoaks District to the south, the London Borough of Bexley to the west, and the Thurrock unitary authority in Essex to the north, across the River Thames. The borough was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of the Municipal Borough of Dartford, the Swanscombe Urban District, and part of the Dartford Rural District. According to the 2011 Census, its population was 97,365.
Audrey Caroline Emerton, Baroness Emerton, is a former member of the House of Lords. She sat as a crossbencher.
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Darenth Country Park is in Darenth near Dartford, in Kent, England. On the site of a former demolished hospital site Darenth Park Hospital, also the site of a scheduled ancient monument and the site of ancient Saxon burials. Due to this protection it was turned into a millennium open-space park.
Joyce Green Hospital was a hospital near Dartford, Kent, England. It opened in 1903 as an isolation hospital. In later years it was a training hospital. The hospital was closed in 2000 and the buildings were demolished. The greenspace where the hospital used to stand is known as Joyce Green.
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