Background At the start of the 18th century there was little provision for the medical care of naval personnel beyond the presence of surgeons on naval ships. If necessary, on-shore premises could be hired to serve as temporary 'sick quarters', beds might be reserved for naval use in the main London hospitals and civilian surgeons engaged under contract. The building was designed by
Theodore Jacobsen. Foundations were laid in 1746 and the main front building was completed in 1753. The first hundred patients were admitted on 23 October that year, but the hospital was still unfinished; construction continued until 1762, when the two parallel side wings were finished. (within its pediment an original hour-striking clock by Colley of London, dated 1762, continues to do service). In its early years it was known as the Royal Hospital Haslar. Built on a peninsula, the hospital's guard towers, high brick walls, and bars and railings throughout the site were all designed to stop patients, many of whom had been
press ganged, from going
absent without leave. The hospital had been designed to accommodate 1,500 patients, but as early as 1755 it was reconfigured to make room for up to 1,800. By 1790 overcrowding had become a serious problem, there now being 2,100 patients in the main building, and others accommodated on board
hulks in Portsmouth Harbour. Dr
James Lind (1716–1794), the 'Father of Naval Medicine', the Governor (the officer in charge) being housed in the large residence in the centre of the terrace. At the same time high railings were installed across the fourth (open) side of the quadrangle to prevent desertions, and the ground floor windows of the wards were barred. Women were employed as nurses, and there was also a support staff of labourers, cooks and other workers. In 1818 the southernmost block of the main hospital was set aside for the treatment of officers and seamen with psychiatric disorders. Haslar Naval
Lunatic Asylum was at the time the only such institution for naval personnel in the UK (apart from some provision at Greenwich Hospital); previously, affected personnel had been sent to
Hoxton House. An early superintending psychiatrist (from 1830-38) was the phrenologist, Dr James Scott (1785–1859), a member of the influential
Edinburgh Phrenological Society. Under the supervision of Dr James Anderson (who was at Haslar from 1842 until his death in 1853) Haslar Asylum became known for its pioneering humane approach in treating mental illness: he abolished chains and restraints, removed the iron bars from the windows and reformed the practices of the attendants. Under him, patients were given use of the hospital grounds; they partook of music and dancing, and were also regularly taken on boating trips in Portsmouth Harbour. To give them a view of the Solent, which lay beyond the high walls of the airing ground adjacent to the Asylum, Anderson created two grass-covered mounds topped by summer houses (one of which still survives). In 1863 the Naval Asylum was removed from Haslar to the Royal Naval Hospital in
Great Yarmouth. In the 1820s a library was established at Haslar and a museum of specimens from around the world, both created at the instigation of Sir
William Burnett, which the Admiralty continued to add to over the years. The Librarian was also required to offer a course of lectures twice a year. The museum was gradually restocked, but later destroyed by bombing in the Second World War. (The Library, however, survived; it has since been amalgamated into the collections of the
Institute of Naval Medicine.) • The Captain Superintendent • Two Lieutenants • Two Medical Inspectors (Richardson and Anderson) • One Deputy Medical Inspector • The Agent & Steward (now a combined role) • A 'Surgeon and Medical Storekeeper' • One Assisting and eight Assistant Surgeons • One Chaplain • Four Clerks To provide fresh water for the hospital a well had been sunk in the 18th century (on what later became the site of an adjacent naval facility:
Haslar Gunboat Yard). The water was raised by
horse engine until 1855, when a steam engine was installed. Four years later a second well was sunk, to a depth of . As well as driving the pumps for the wells, the engine provided water, steam and motive power for a new hospital laundry, which was built within the hospital grounds directly opposite the engine house (and connected to it via a tunnel under Haslar Road). The water pumped from the wells was stored in a
water tower (which was rebuilt in the 1880s), while hot water from the engine was sent to a separate tank on the roof of the laundry. When
Greenwich Hospital closed in 1869, several of the
in-pensioners moved in to the hospital at Haslar, and were accommodated in their own dedicated wards. Out-pensioners could also apply for entry. A handful of ex-Greenwich pensioners were still living there in the early 20th century. From 1881, newly-admitted naval surgeons began to be sent routinely to Haslar for a course of initial instruction (previously they had been sent to the Army's hospital at
Netley). ). The hospital was kept busy during the
First World War. During the
Second World War the hospital established the country's first
blood bank, treated casualties from the
Normandy landings and deployed clinicians to field hospitals in Europe and in the Far East. In 1954 Royal Hospital Haslar was renamed the Royal
Naval Hospital Haslar (a designation which had already been used interchangeably at times in the 19th century) to reflect its naval traditions. In 1984 a new building lying between the two wings of the original hospital was opened; housing operating theatres and various patient support services, it was known as the Crosslink. The following year, as part of
Front Line First, it was announced that two more hospitals would close, leaving only Haslar (which would be reconstituted as a
Joint Services institution). , 13 May 1999. Finally in December 1998, following on from the
Strategic Defence Review of that year,
21st century In 2001 Royal Hospital Haslar began to be run by the Ministry of Defence and
Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust in partnership; but in March 2007 the MOD withdrew its involvement.
Closure . All remaining medical facilities at the site were closed in 2009. After services were transferred to the Ministry of Defence Hospital Unit at
Queen Alexandra Hospital in
Cosham,
Portsmouth, the hospital closed in 2009. On 17 May 2010 an investigation of the hospital's burial ground, by archaeologists from
Cranfield Forensic Institute, was featured on
Channel 4's television programme
Time Team. It established that a large number of individuals (calculated as approximately 7,785) had been buried in unmarked graves.
Redevelopment Plans were released in 2014 for a £152 million redevelopment scheme involving housing, commercial space, a retirement home and a hotel. The hospital was converted into retirement flats to the designs of Graham Reid Architects and Heber-Percy and Parker Architects between 2018 and 2020. ==See also==