Whitchurch Hospital 3.49

Whitchurch Hospital was a psychiatric hospital in Whitchurch, an area in the north of Cardiff. As well as general psychiatry, services include elderly psychiatry, neuropsychiatry, forensic psychiatry, rehabilitation and addiction services. It is part of the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board.HistoryThe population of Cardiff had expanded greatly, from under 20,000 in 1851 to over 40,000 less than 20 years later. By 1890 there were 476 Cardiff residents "boarded out" in the Glamorgan Asylum, and a further 500 to 600 being held in hospitals as far away as Chester and Carmarthen.Costing £350,000 and ten years to build, the Cardiff City Asylum opened on 15 April 1908. The main hospital building covered, designed to accommodate 750 patients across 10 wards, 5 each for men and women. Like many Victorian institutes, it was designed as a self-contained institute, with its own water tower atop a power house containing two Belliss and Morcom steam engine powered electric generator sets, which were only removed from standby in the mid-1980s. The site also contained a farm, which provided both food supplies and therapeutic work for the patients.