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The photograph above shows the part of the Warneford Asylum that is probably the best recognized today, as it now forms the main entrance, approached from Roosevelt Drive. It is not the original hospital, however, but the new extension of 1877 designed by William Wilkinson,.

The original 1826 Warneford Asylum (designed by Richard Ingleman) was approached from the lodge in Warneford Lane and is shown below:

The photograph below (Historic England CC51/00720) shows the above building in 1909:

The next photograph Historic England CC51/00723) shows the original entrance to the Asylum:

List entry for the older main hospital buildings: 1245464
List entry for chapel: 1245465
List entry for mortuary building: 1245348
List entry for nurses' home: 1245349
List entry for Lodge, front garden area wall, and gate piers: 1245350

When the Radcliffe Infirmary opened in 1770, its five-acre site off the road to Woodstock was in a rural setting well outside the city boundary. But by 1812 the area around the Infirmary was already being built up and there was a proposal to build a sister institution, the Radcliffe Lunatic Asylum. At a meeting on 10 March 1819 it was agreed that a secluded ten-acre site in Headington, where land was cheaper as well as more plentiful, would be purchased for a Lunatic Asylum. The site was described thus:

The situation is healthy and retired; in Headington South Field, being the first of the new enclosures on the right hand adjoining the old road over Shotover Hill, distant about one mile from Magdalen Bridge.

Funds had to be raised first, and the foundation stone of the Radcliffe (or Oxford) Lunatic Asylum was laid on 27 August 1821. Jackson’s Oxford Journal reported as follows on 1 September 1821:

The foundation stone of the Oxford Lunatic Asylum was laid on Monday last, by the Bishop, in the presence of the President of Trinity, the acting Pro-Vice-Chancellor, the Provost of Oriel, Sir Joseph Lock, the Proctors, Dr. Williams, Dr. Bourne, Dr. Kidd, and other Gentlemen of the University and City. The Principal of Magdalen Hall … availed himself of the opportunity of observing that such an Institution was peculiarly desirable here, as none had been erected within a day’s journey of Oxford. He also remarked that it had been ascertained by parliamentary returns, that insanity was a much more common malady than was generally supposed. He stated that the erection of such a building had been in contemplation since 1813, but that the deficiency of subscriptions had hitherto prevented the execution of it; and that though the committee had at length ventured to begin it, was in reliance on a liberal support from the public, without whose aid it would be impossible to complete the design. A coronation medal of his Majesty was deposited in the foundation stone, and the Bishop concluded the ceremony with an appropriate and impressive prayer for the divine blessing upon the institution.

We understand that it is the intention of the committee to erect the centre and one wing, but that Mr. W Evans had contracted to complete the whole, if 2000l. additional can be raised. Each of the Proctors made a donation of 5l. and we may expect that in the ensuing Term their example will be followed by many of the Gentlemen of the University. Several of the colleges have subscribed most liberally in their corporate capacity, and 500l. has been granted by vote of Convocation out of the University Chest. The city has also presented to this charity a donation of 300l. The following is the inscription on the foundation stone:–

Edward Lord Bishop of the diocese
laid this first stone
of the Oxford Asylum,
for the reception and cure of the Insane,
on Monday the 27th August, 1821,
in the second year of the reign of George IV.
May Almighty God
incline the hearts of the benevolent
to complete this Institution,
commenced in reliance upon his Providence;
and may He bless the design
by restoring the objects of this Charity
to their friends and to society.

The Oxford Lunatic Asylum (as it was originally known) opened in 1826, and the Asylum Committee announced in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 24 June that the asylum would be ready for the reception of patients early in July, and that all persons who wished their friends who were “afflicted with insanity” to be admitted should write to the Secretary of the institution. It was explained in the edition of 17 February 1827 that the patients were arranged in three classes according to their circumstances, and were charged two guineas, one guinea, or twelve shillings weekly, and inApril 1827 this “retreat for the insance” was opened to patients from “any part of the kingdom”.

In Jackson's Oxford Journal on 14 June 1828 the Vicar of Yarnton, the Revd Vaughan Thomas (who now has a ward at the hospital named after him) appealed for donations to a fund for “the poor curable lunatics of the county of Oxford”, describing the asylum thus:

It is probably known to most of those whom I have the honour of addressing, that a Lunatic Asylum was opened on Headington Hill, near Oxford, about two years ago—that it was built at an expense of £20,000, voluntarily contributed; that its centre-house is reserved exclusively for patients of superior condition, but that its wings are open to patients from the middling and lower stations of life; and that its whole system is conducted upon a principle of benevolence, and not for the profit of individuals.

By October 1828 Frederick Thomas Wintle was appointed resident apothecary at the asylum, and was also  responsible for its day-to-day running, assisted by two female nurses, two male “keepers”, a cook and a housemaid. Later he was promoted to its resident medical superitendent, a post he held until his death at the ageof 50 on 14 February 1853. (Wintle Ward in the present hospital is named after him.)

In 1843 the Oxford Lunatic Asylum was renamed the Warneford Lunatic Asylum after the Revd Samuel W. Warneford, Rector of Bourton-on-the-Hill, Gloucestershire, who contributed the huge sum of £70,000 to it over his lifetime. His statue now sits in the hospital's entrance hall.

 

It was not the first hospital to bear Warneford's name: there was another Warneford Hospital in Leamington, Warwickshire, as this inscription (right) in the old Radcliffe Infirmary shows

The hospital aimed to recreate the atmosphere of a gentleman’s country house. An 1847 directory states:

On the summit of Headington Hill is the Warneford lunatic asylum, opened in 1826, for the accommodation of lunatics selected from the higher classes of society.

From 1846 unselected “lunatics” from the lower classes of society went to the new Oxford County Lunatic Asylum at Littlemore.

More land was purchased, and the grounds of the Warneford Hospital once stretched as far as the present Churchill Hospital.

The censuses list the inmates of this asylum by their initials only, but give their marital status, sex, age, occupation, and place of birth. The 1871 census lists 58 inmates, ranging in age from 26 to 72, each described as “lunatic”. Of the 29 men, two are clergymen and four are clergymen’s sons; one is a farmer and three are farmer’s sons; and one is a surgeon and two are medical students.

When the patients who had been abandoned by their relations died, they were buried in the parish in which the asylum stood, which until 1849 meant the churchyard of St Andrew’s in Old Headington and from 1849 to 1894 the churchyard of Holy Trinity in Headington Quarry; the latter has at least 113 such burials: see list.

 

Left: The Chapel at the Warneford, begun in 1841 by Thomas Greenshields of Oxford and completed in 1852 by J. M. Derick

 

Below: The date of 1877 inscribed over the main entrance of the Warneford. A substantial extension (now forming the entrance) was built in two stages (1877 and 1887).

 

List of staff and initials of patients at the Radcliffe Lunatic Asylum in 1841
(PDF file)

In 1889 the municipal borough of Oxford was extended eastwards, bringing the Warneford into the City of Oxford. In 1894 it was taken away from the parish of Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry and annexed to the parish of St Clement’s.

It was now the Warneford Hospital, Oxford rather than Headington, and as it was in the city it soon received better services than Headington:

• The 1895 telephone directory lists the Warneford Asylum with the number Oxford 63.
• In 1902 The Warneford became the first building in Headington to get mains water: Jackson’s Oxford Journal reported on 25 October that year that a special water main had been laid to it from the Headington Hill reservoir.
• In 1907 the Warneford was supplied with electricity for the first time when a substation was built in its grounds.

The present Warneford Meadow to the south-east of this map was purchased by the Warneford in the 1920s when the lands of Southfield Farm were sold.

By the 1920s, the terminology had changed: advertisements in Kelly's Directory stated that the Warneford was a hospital for the treatment and care of mental patients belonging to the educated classes rather than for “lunatics selected from the higher classes of society” of 88 years before. The new description of the hospital and the type of patients it welcomed can be seen in this advertisement from Kelly’s Directory of Oxfordshire in 1935:

More information about the Warneford Hospital is here on the Oxfordshire Health Archives website, including lists of records available and some tales from the archives.

Below: the chapel and gardens of the Warneford in 1909 (Historic England CC72/02268):

• Oxfordshire Local History Association Bulletin, Vol. 11, Winter 2023:
  John Hall: “The early development of mental health services in Oxfordshire”
• Warneford 200: Events that will celebrate 200 years of the Warneford in 2026

 

Memories of the Warneford Farm in the 1950s and 1960s (PDF)

 

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From Hospital to College: The future of the Warneford

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust is planning a £750m development called Warneford Park at the Warneford Hospital site comprising:

• Construction of a new mental health hospital to replace the existing Warneford
• Construction of a new research facility
• Construction of a new postgraduate medical college of the University of Oxford and association accommodation
• Refurbishment and conversion of the current mental health hospital for use as part of a the above new college.

Two planning applications were validated on 6 August 2025 and comments must be received by 19 September:

• 25/01859/OUTFUL
  (i) Outline application (with all matters reserved save for "access"), for the demolition of existing buildings and erection of a graduate college for the University of Oxford comprising Student accommodation (Sui Generis), ancillary college buildings (Sui Generis), provision of landscaping, bin and cycle parking, car parking, public realm and open space. (ii) Full application for demolition of existing buildings and partial demolition of existing walls, erection of a hospital building (Use Class C2), a research building (Use Class E(g)(ii)), a hospital research link building (C2/E(g)(ii)), and erection of relocated SANE building (Use Class E(g)(i)and (ii)) and pavilion building. Provision of associated car parking, cycle parking, bin storage, access, landscaping, public realm works and associated infrastructure works. Refurbishment and repair of the Gate Lodge and use for residential accommodation associated with the College (Use Class Sui generis)
• 25/01834/LBC
  Interventions including alteration, demolition and repair of listed and curtilage listed structures to facilitate comprehensive development of the site. The works relate to the demolition of the former farmhouse and former stables; dismantling of former pavilion building and onsite reconstruction and relocation; removal of secondary attached and freestanding structures; alterations and repair of historic boundary walls; and repair and restoration of the Gate Lodge
• NHS announcement on these plans
• BBC News: “New plans for 'world-class' mental health hospital”

Construction would begin in late 2028 at the earliest, with the hospital and research building opening in 2031 and the graduate college in 2033.

Previous news

• Scoping Opinion 23/01148/SCOPE: see full details of the development on the 142-page PDF called “Background Papers: Scoping report”, which is the second item under the Documents tab.
• Oxford Mail, 3 October 2023:
  “Plans for new mental health hospital at Warneford”
• The plans for “Warneford Park” made progress with the signing of a conditional option agreement between the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and “a philanthropist”:
  Oxford Health News, 8 January 2024: “Next step in plans for Warneford Park”