The Towers Hospital was a mental health facility in Humberstone,

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

, England. The administration building, which became known as George Hine House, is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. The property, which was originally a home on a family estate owned by the Broadbent family was transformed into what would become the hospital after being sold to the Leicester Borough Council in 1862. Adjacent to the main building is Benjamin Court which is named after the original owner, Benjamin Broadbent.

History

Broadbent ownership

The site chosen for the hospital had previously been occupied by Victoria House (of which the main block still remains), the former home of Benjamin Broadbent, a leading businessman, master builder, and architect, whose works were well renowned across the Midlands at the time. He built a house on the site in the late 1850s, and moved in in early 1860. Following his death in 1862, his son Benjamin Jr. sold the house and 30 acres of land to the Leicester Borough Council for £8,000. The house had to be demolished due to dry rot, and the grounds were used for the Leicester Towers Hospital.

The Hospital

The hospital, which was designed by Edward Loney Stephens using a corridor layout with compact arrow additions, opened as the Leicester Borough Lunatic Asylum in September 1869. An extension to the male ward, designed by

George Thomas Hine George Thomas Hine FRIBA (1842–25 April 1916) was an English architect. His prolific output included new county asylums for Hertfordshire, Lincolnshire, Surrey, East Sussex and Worcestershire, as well as extensive additions to many others. Bi ...

, was completed in 1883 and a corresponding extension to the female ward, also designed by Hine, was completed in 1890. A bath house, also designed by Hine, was added in 1913. The facility became the Leicester City Mental Hospital in the 1920s. Three detached villa properties, built in the 1930s, were made available to the Emergency Medical Service during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The facility joined the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

as the Towers Hospital in 1948. After the introduction of

Care in the Community Care in the Community (also called "Community Care" or "Domiciliary Care") is a British policy of deinstitutionalisation, treating and caring for physically and mentally disabled people in their homes rather than in an institution. Institutional c ...

in the early 1980s, the hospital went into a period of decline and closed in April 2013. The administration building, which became known as George Hine House, was converted for use as a Sikh free school in 2014. Several of the other buildings, including the original main block with superintendent's residence above, have been redeveloped for residential use.

References

{{authority control Hospital buildings completed in 1869 Hospitals established in 1869 1869 establishments in England 2013 disestablishments in England Hospitals disestablished in 2013 Defunct hospitals in England Former psychiatric hospitals in England Hospitals in Leicestershire