Site Disposal:
On my last visit to this place, I was going through the Administration block looking through the fire damage and came across this brown folder. Something that had been long overlooked in the filing cabinet was a folder marked 'SITE DISPOSAL'... Care in the Community saw the closure of many asylums like Cane Hill back in the late 80s and early 90s. Cane Hill itself had been falling into disrepair for many years before hand, with wards being shut down and then in 1991, it was decided the hospital should start shutting its doors for the final time. This folder explained some of the original plans that a local Coulsdon Christian group had...
Other ways the site has attempted to be disposed of are mostly by arson. Oh, and the SAS.
Sadly enough, these plans never went through. Funnily enough, this was due to the storage of mattresses on site by the Coulsdon Christian Fellowship and their complete failure to remove these from the abandoned wards of Cane Hill. The site has since had planning application for a science park, business park, expansion of the current medium secure unit for the criminally insane and various housing ideas, (think Netherne). As far as I know, a couple of years ago some contractors were buying the site for £4 million but pulled out at the last minute. Coulsdon bypass has been built on the edges of the 5 acre site and Cane Hill still awaits its fate with English Partnerships, (now the Homes and Communities Agency, HCA). Surprisingly, only the Administration Block and the chapel at Cane Hill have a locally, but not nationally listed status. As of late 2007, English Partnerships have come up with plans for The Hill: Demolition, Residential, Employment and Mixed Use. In May 2008, residents decided on which of the ideas they liked best, with plans for a final draft to be drawn up for the end of 2008 and outlined planning application for the first quarter of 2009. So far, I think the main idea is for a Science Park. At the end of March 2008, the Medium Secure Unit on the Cane Hill site was closed. This allowed for its demolition to progress rapidly, costing £8 million which started in June 2008. It's now 2011 and these plans have been put on the back burner and it's now for sale. Again, no one knows just what Cane Hill will become.
(Photograph courtesy of Baldrickthecunning. ©2008 Baldrickthecunning.)
In November 2010, 2 fires occurred on site: north west corner of the Administration block and in the water tower. The water tower is now no longer standing and the worst parts of the Administration block are to be demolished next year.