| |  | | | |  | |  | | Our History | | | | | St Andrew's Hospital in Northampton, was opened in 1838 as a result of the County Asylums Act of 1808, which stated that every county should provide an asylum for pauper and criminal lunatics.
The initial funding to purchase the land, once owned by the Cluniac Priory of St Andrew's, came from the funds of the Northamptonshire Yeomanry when the regiment disbanded, and it is from this that the continuing link between the Hospital and many of the leading County families dates.
Originally intended to house 70 patients, by the mid 1840s St Andrew's was caring for over 260 people; by 1860 this had risen to 317 and five years later to 414.
The Hospital Chapel was designed by Sir Gilbert Scott, the famous Victorian architect who is probably best known for St Pancras Station, and opened in 1863. Like the main Hospital building, this now enjoys Listed Building status. For more information on our Chaplaincy service see Chaplaincy
In 1864 the Hospital's best-known resident, the Northamptonshire peasant-poet John Clare, died. He spent 23 years in the Hospital and was given freedom to wander round the town and local area.
In the 1860s the Hospital had problems with the mix between private and pauper patients, and the number of the latter declined, with the last ones leaving for a new county asylum in 1876. This change led to the title of the Northampton General Lunatic Asylum for the Middle and Upper classes being adopted. The asylum was renamed St Andrew's Hospital in 1887.
St Andrew's Hospital kept abreast of technological advances, with telephones being installed in 1881, a back-up electrical generator in 1898 and the first motor vehicle arriving in the mid 1900s.
In the inter-war years the Hospital kept abreast of advances in mental health care and laid particular stress on the benefits of occupational therapy as part of the treatment process.
After the Second World War St Andrew's sought for exemption from the National Health Service, and was one of four Registered Hospitals allowed to function outside the NHS, maintaining the charitable status it still enjoys today.
The last thirty years have seen the construction of a number of new buildings, the most significant of which are Isham House, the Kemsley service expansion, Spencer House, the Lowther Adolescent Service building and more recently, Malcolm Arnold House and our new womens service facility Smyth House.
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