Darenth Park

Darenth Park Hospital was founded by the Metropolitan Asylums Board in Darenth near Dartford in Kent as "Darenth School" for 500 children with learning disabilities on 18 November 1878. By 1890 it housed over 1,000 children and adults. In 1911 it became the "Darenth Industrial Trading Colony", and was becoming almost self-sufficient in food production and the manufacture of everyday items through the ample supply of free labour. In 1936, as the age and disability levels of residents increased it became Darenth Park Hospital, and management was transferred from the London County Council, which had succeeded the Metropolitan Asylums Board in the management of this institution, to the new National Health Service in 1948. The hospital drew...