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St Ebba's Epileptic Colony, Epsom

St Ebba's Colony was the third hospital to be built within the Epsom Cluster; It was originally known as the Ewell Epileptic Colony and was first opened to patients in 1904, it was not classified as an asylum.  The colony was designed by William C Clifford Smith in a dispersed colony format containing 8 villas.  It was built to the east of the Horton Estate on 112 acres of land, 20 acres being used for the villas (Holly, Lime, Pine, Elm, Chestnut, Hawthorn, Walnut, Beech); it cost a total of £98,000 and will house a total of 326 epileptic patients, 60 of which were female. 

Each villa on the site was built to house 38 patients and they were orientated in a south-easterly direction; however 32 female patients were house in the administration ward attached to the administration building.  Each Villa was designed to maximise the amount of freedom each patient had, with a veranda on the exterior for patients to sit out on; the villas were managed by a married couple.  The Recreation hall was also used as a dining room for all the patients, it could house up to 326 people comfortably but only patients that were in a healthy condition ate there.  The colony also contained the normal laundry, stores, engineering workshops, kitchens and water tower; there was also a mortuary on site, but this was converted at an unknown time and the services moved away.

St Ebba's is currently closing down, with many of the villas currently standing empty and awaiting redevelopment as a housing estate; the water tower and Limewood villa being Grade II listed.  With the redevelopment plan is to include fifty-five patients to be cared for in a refurbished villa, and a small section to the north-east of the site still being used by the health services.  Information taken from an extract from the British Medical Journal in 1903.

As of the Summer of 2009, the St Ebba's site has been demolished and work to construct the new housing estate has begun.