History
For about a year, in 1857/58, the head gardener at Knowle, Henry Coe, engaged in a personal correspondence with Charles Darwin concerning horticultural matters, especially about the cultivation of kidney beans.
In 1879, the Portsmouth Borough Asylum (St James' Hospital) was opened in Southsea, and Knowle provided care for the rest of Hampshire; later, Park Prewett Hospital in Basingstoke took over responsibilities for the northern half of the county. The staff at Knowle developed working relationships with the Royal Hospital Haslar and Netley Hospital, both important local M.O.D. hospitals.
The asylum was renamed Knowle Mental Hospital in 1923 and then became Knowle Hospital in 1948.
Following the departure of the Southampton city services to the Royal South Hants Hospital in 1979, Knowle became the provider of mental health services to the linked boroughs of Fareham and Gosport. Also, the Knowle site housed the regional service for child and adolescent psychiatry and the forensic psychiatry services under the leadership of Dr Malcolm Faulk.
When Knowle closed in 1996, local services devolved to Gosport War Memorial Hospital and Hewat House (in Gosport) and to the Meadows in-patient unit and the Osborn Centre in Fareham. Regional forensic services remained on the Knowle site, at Ravenswood House. Nowadays the Knowle site is primarily a residential development, although the NHS establishment (Ravenswood House) still offers secure psychiatric accommodation to a limited number of patients.
Read more about this topic: Knowle Hospital
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