Two parallel rows of trees with a walkway between, running south from Clifton Park Avenue, are one of the surviving reminders of the former Clifton Hospital in York. Taken on a dull grey day, this path and others in the former hospital grounds were being well used, but people were maintaining social distance.
The hospital, which was designed by George Gilbert Scott and William Bonython Moffatt using a Corridor Plan layout, opened as the North and East Ridings Pauper Lunatic Asylum in April 1847. The hospital was considerably extended in stages to designs developed by George Fowler Jones in the second half of the 19th century.
It became the North Riding Lunatic Asylum in 1865 and the North Riding Mental Hospital in 1920 before joining the National Health Service as Clifton Hospital in 1948.
After the introduction of Care in the Community in the early 1980s, the hospital went into a period of decline and closed in July 1994. The main building was demolished and the site was redeveloped in part as offices for Norwich Union (now used by NFU Mutual) and in part for residential use as 'Clifton Park' but the original chapel survives and is now used as an orthopedic clinic.
Thank you all for your lovely comments and favs, they are very much appreciated.
I walked as far as I could along this path, before a turn to the right and another turn onto a surfaced track back to the road. It is a long time since I followed this walk, and nature is very busy reclaiming the area.
Ian
March 11th, 2021
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Thank you all for your lovely comments and favs, they are very much appreciated.
I walked as far as I could along this path, before a turn to the right and another turn onto a surfaced track back to the road. It is a long time since I followed this walk, and nature is very busy reclaiming the area.
Ian