The Holloway Lunatic Asylum.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 212, 2 December 1873, Page 7

The Holloway Lunatic Asylum.

Upon St. Ann's Heath, one of the most picturesque elevations in the county of Surrey, Mr Thomas Holloway, whose name is known in every land that possesses a news'paper, has commenced the erection of a magnificent asylum, which he is about to present to the British nation, for the reception of lunatic patients. The site of the asylum faces the Virginia Water station of the Stainea and Workingham branch of the South Western Railway, the front having a south-wes-terly aspect. The ground selected is about twenty-one acres in extent, and five acres of this will be covered by the building, which will be of richly decorated Gothic architecture, having a fagade of 640 ft. and a depth of 250 ft., The materials will consist of ,red brick and Portland-stone dressings, There will be a handsome colonnade of massive pillars at the chief entrance, and a central towtr of 170 ft., with turrets at each, wing about GO ft. high. A terrace, 40 ft. wide, will run along the principal front and by the wings. The asylum will cost £IOO,OOO, will take three years in building, and is intended to accommodate about four hundred male and female patients. The architects are Messrs Crossland, Salomons, and Jones, of Carlton: Chambers, Regent-Street.—London Times, August 21, 1873. In a letter we have received from Mr Holloway, enclosing a reprint of the above, he Says : —"ln addition to the amount referred to therein, I propose to devote a further sum of. half a million sterling, as a free gift to the nation, more especially the middle classes, in reduced circumstances." And he, adds, should .the article be inserted, 'it might induce wealthy persons with yon to do the like.'"