Bootham Park Hospital

Coordinates: 53°58′01″N 1°05′13″W / 53.967°N 1.087°W / 53.967; -1.087

Frontage of Bootham Park Hospital as seen from Bootham.

Bootham Park Hospital is a psychiatric hospital, part of NHS North Yorkshire and York. It is located in the Bootham district of York and is a Grade I listed building.^[1]

History

Side view of Bootham Park Hospital from Union Terrace. The pavilion on the left is an end-on view of Carr's original building.

In 1772, Robert Hay Drummond, the Archbishop of York, decided along with "twenty-four Yorkshire gentlemen" to establish an asylum, called the 'County Lunatic Asylum, York'. A committee was established, and the architect John Carr was co-opted with a pledge of 25 guineas. Carr's patron, the Marquis of Rockingham, pledged 100 guineas, and a total of £2500 was subscribed. By July 1773, £5000 had been promised, and Carr's scheme to accommodate 54 patients was approved on 25 August. The building was completed in 1777.^[2] The name of the building was later changed to Bootham Park Hospital.

Criticism about the handling of inmates led the local Quaker community to found, in 1790, a new asylum known as The Retreat.

The hospital owns the only known portrait of Sir Jeffrey Dunstan (c.1759-1796): Artist unknown^{[importance?][citation needed]}

References

1. ^ Description at British Listed Buildings
2. ^ Wragg, Brian (2000). The Life and Works of John Carr of York. Otley: Oblong. p. 231. ISBN 0953657418. 

External links

• Hospital archives