I'm sitting in my kitchen writing up this blog post, my quiet, clean kitchen!! It's the second week of the Easter holidays here at UEL, & I am thoroughly enjoying the solitude! A couple of weeks ago now, (I know, it's been a while!) my friend Sydney & I spent a day exploring North London. It's an interesting area, both geographically & historically & there are many areas which have been redeveloped into luxurious apartments for the 1%. From the tube stop, we took a wrong turn (of course) & stumbled upon a beautiful cafe with cheap brekky & tea. After a reorientation pit-stop we continued (still going the wrong way) & wandered amongst the pretty hillside houses until we finally discovered our end point.Princess Park Manor.
Originally named Colney Hatch Mental Asylum, then changed to Friern Hospital due to introduced Anti-Discrimination Laws, this estate was commissioned in 1849 & opened to patients in 1851. This particular asylum was very interesting for its time, so I'm going to give you a short history lesson...
Colney Hatch was the most expensively built asylum of it's time & was the largest & most modern in all of Europe. To walk all of its wards would have taken five hours. Colney Hatch had it's own water supply, well, cemetery, chapel & a 75 acre estate. In 1903 there was a serious fire in a temporary building that was erected as one of the many additions to house more patients & 52 patients & nurses were killed. It is also said that many of the patients housed there escaped as some remains were not found & patients were not accounted for. During the Second World War 12 wards were requisitioned for use as a temporary war hospital & during the bombing of London four separate villas were destroyed killing civilians, patients & staff.
These days the estate is much smaller & some wings of the building could not be salvaged during the restoration, but it is still one of the most impressive castle-like structures I have ever seen! Friern Hospital only officially closed in 1993 & was abandoned for a few years before the estate was purchased by Comer Homes, a redeveloping & real estate company owned by two wealthy Irish brothers with an interesting history of their own. They transformed Friern Hospital into one of the most expensive & beautiful places to live in London, Princess Park Manor. Some current occupants include the five lovely lads of One Direction!!
Enjoy! I will be writing more, & more often hopefully as I have a fair bit to catch everyone up on! xo
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Currently listening to & loving Ed Sheeran's new single SING ♪ I have also pre-ordered his CD album, 'Multiply' & a copy of the vinyl, to be released June 23rd.
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