The Cassel Hospital’s fascinating history
The Cassel Hospital has been serving the needs of people living with trauma for over 100 years. It was founded by philanthropist Sir Ernest Cassel in 1919 to treat civilian victims of First World War shell shock and went on to pioneer the use of therapeutic community in the treatment of people with severe mental illness.
Originally in Penshurst, Kent, the hospital began treating patients in 1921. It moved to Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs, during the Second World War. In 1948, it relocated to No. 1 Ham Common and entered the NHS under the leadership of psychoanalyst Dr Tom Main.
Main pioneered the concept of a ‘therapeutic community’. Instead of viewing patients as passively ill and staff as actively knowing what was best for them, patients took part in the treatment process. Those foundations are still at the heart of the work The Cassel does today.
The hospital, which is now a national centre of excellence for research and training, treats patients who have a personality disorder and complex trauma.
Personality disorder is a mental health condition affecting 4.4% of adults– that’s one in 23 people. A person with a personality disorder thinks, feels, behaves or relates to others in ways which often cause distress to themselves and sometimes to others.
Life is more difficult for people with a personality disorder so they are more likely to have other problems such as depression or drug and alcohol addictions.
The Cassel’s specialist team helps people reduce behaviours which are harmful or interfere with them living their lives to the full. Members of the community help each another build and foster healthy relationships.
The Cassel Hospital is supported in its work by The Cassel Hospital Charitable Trust. During 2021 and 2022, as a way of celebrating the hospital’s centenary, The Charitable Trust is working to raise awareness of its work, past, present and future and funds to help people with mental illness lead better lives. It’s quick and easy to make a donation.
The charity is planning lots of exciting projects and events to achieve these ambitious aims. We will be recording and filming present and former patients and staff sharing their experiences of the hospital for its archive. Quilting and gardening projects are also underway. Find out more here.
The Cassel Hospital has been in Ham, Richmond since the 1948
No. 1 Ham Common
The Cassel Hospital building was originally a late 18th-century house known as Morgan House, named after its owner, philanthropist and writer John Minter Morgan. Morgan died in 1854 and is buried in St Andrew’s Church. In 1863, the house became home to the newly married Duc de Chartres. In 1879, it was turned into West Heath School for Young Ladies. The school moved to Kent in the 1930s and the building housed the Lawrence Hall Hotel until its purchase by The Cassel Foundation. The Cassel Hospital moved into No. 1 Ham Common in 1948 and the building, which has large, mature gardens, was Grade II listed in 1950.