Bexley Hospital

       this post is not finished and not edited or checked

Bexley Hospital

London Mental Hospital, erected by the London County Council in 1898 at a cost of over £400,000, and providing accommodation for 2,160 patients. Building of note. Battlemented water tower is a landmark. Remarkable because of a chapel 1899. Transferred from Metropolitan Asylums Board to London County Council

Hiram Maxim. 1893 First aircraft hanger built there. Flew 600 ft in 1895. This was a a steam powered bi-plane which was tethered to a rail test track..  It lifted the plane off the ground and shot it forward. 

Baldwyns Park – Baldwyns Manor dated at least to 1200.  Early owner was Sir John Baude who also called himself Baudiwins.  It was owned by Lesnes Abbey and after suppression was passed to Cardinal Wolsey who passed it to Eton College.  There seems to  have been a manor house from, possibly, the 1750s at which time, and subsequently, it was inhabited by a succession of City big wigs. In the 1870s one of them,Charles Minet, was the ‘saviour’ of Dartford Heath by challenging the enclosers. The Manor House remained on site and was used as an Occupational Therapy department.  Used for a hospital from 1898.   

Heathside

A few acres of primitive Kent

Old Bexley Lane

Chapel small, neat, white-painted

Ditch, here invisible in concrete pipes


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Bromley by Bow

South Norwood

River Lea/Bow Creek Canning Town