Royal Earlswood Park

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New housing development, sited on the former Royal Earlswood Hospital in Redhill.

Royal Earlswood Hospital was founded as Earlswood Asylum for Idiots and Imbeciles in 1848 by the Rev'd. Doctor A. Reed. Construction began on premises at Redhill, Surrey in 1852 to the design of W.B. Moffat and was completed three years later.

Dr. John Langdon Down was superintendent from 1858-1868 and it was here that he first identified what he termed 'Mongolian Idiocy', now named Down's Syndrome in his honour. In recognition of his work, Queen Victoria gave the asylum a royal charter in 1862.

From the late '30s, two of the Queen Mother's nieces were kept here without visits and were officially declared dead by Buckingham Palace.

The hospital closed in 1997.