Broadmoor Hospital has submitted proposals to change the use of two on-site buildings from offices into staff accommodation. 

The high-security psychiatric hospital in Crowthorne plans to change the use of The Pines and The Ashes ground floor offices, which are situated outside of the secure perimeter, into multi-occupancy three-bedroom flats. 

The proposed flats would also be comprised of a study, kitchen and dining space, lounge, bathroom, and a separate toilet. 

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The Broadmoor site has been undergoing a programme of work since 2011 with the building of a new hospital, demolition of existing buildings and various other enabling projects. 

The planning application for the whole of the Broadmoor Hospital redevelopment was approved on May 24, 2012. 

As part of this, sites on Cricket Field Grove and School Hill were disposed of by the West London NHS Trust, who manage the hospital, for residential redevelopments. As a result, staff accommodation previously on Cricket Field Grove is no longer in its ownership.  

Following the completion of the new wards for the hospital, the Trust have reviewed their retained building stock and subsequently identified several existing properties that are suitable for use as staff accommodation.  

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The Ashes, which was originally built as a single-family home before being converted into an IT training centre, is situated on a plot near Kentigern Drive – approximately 400m from the new entrance building that serves the secure hospital.  

It is served by two parking spaces to the front of the property and there are an additional 50 spaces situated at the rear of the site.  

The Pines site faces Kentigern Drive and is also supported by the parking spaces to the rear of the building. The new accommodation will support the Trust’s upcoming recruitment drive. 

Broadmoor is the oldest of three high-security psychiatric hospitals in England, having been built in 1863 – the other two are Ashworth Hospital near Liverpool and Rampton Secure Hospital in Nottinghamshire. 

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The £250m New Broadmoor Hospital opened in December 2019, near to the site of its former home within a 150-year-old Victorian building. 

Initially called Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, the 53-acre site can accommodate up to 240 inpatients – including those with severe mental illness and people with multiple personality disorder who represent a high degree of harm to themselves or others. 

Today the hospital is only home to male patients after the female service at the hospital closed in 2007. 

Some of the hospital’s most notorious patients include the Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliff – who was found guilty of murdering 13 women, Ronnie Kray – one half of the infamous east London gangsters’ the Kray twins, and Charles Bronson – dubbed Britain’s “most violent prisoner.”