Welsh Metropolitan War Hospital

Whitchurch Hospital
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board
Main hospital entrance and bowling green
Geography
Location	Cardiff, South Glamorgan, Wales, United Kingdom
Organisation
Care system	Public NHS
Hospital type	Specialist
Affiliated university	Cardiff University
Services
Emergency department	No Accident & Emergency
Speciality	Psychiatric hospital
History
Founded	1908
Closed	2016
Links
Lists	Hospitals in Wales

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.

The 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 5 acres (2.0 ha), 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 150 feet (46 m) 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.

The first medical superintendent was Dr Edwin Goodhall, whose then advanced approaches and therapies resulted in the hospital acquiring a reputation at the forefront of mental health care. Patients were also encouraged to take work and supervised tours outside the institute.

During World War I, the facility was called the Welsh Metropolitan War Hospital.