Friern Village Park, including Princess Park Manor

The Middlesex County Pauper Lunatic Asylum was built in 1849-51 to house 1,000 pauper lunatics. Designed by architect Samuel Whitfield Daukes (1811-1880), the main building is a long central block in the Italianate style with two towers, flanked by two wings, a dome and a famously long corridor of 1,881ft 6 ins. Prince Albert, the Prince Consort, laid the foundation stone in 1849 and the hospital opened in 1851. The plan and topographical view shown in 'The Builder' of 1851 shows a tree-flanked approach, parterre-type planting on two forecourts in front of the main block, and eight 'Airing Courts' between the wings and central spine laid out as formal gardens, and kitchen gardens beyond. Many additions were made to the buildings after 1857. By 1896 there were 2,500 patients, some housed in timber buildings, which burnt down in 1903. Between 1908 and 1913 a series of brick villas were built for different categories of patient and by 1929 the grounds extended to 165 acres (c.67 h.). The grounds included gardens, a farm, a chapel and a cemetery that was in use until 1873.

The asylum, set in its landscaped grounds, gained an early reputation for being run on humane grounds based on a principle of 'no restraint', offering entertainment to its inmates and having its own beer cellar. It received so many visitors, including those from overseas, that a guidebook was published. There were fetes, dances, concerts, lectures and lantern shows, and patients were able to visit their relatives on their birthday, accompanied by a nurse. However, there was also criticism of how patients were treated and the hospital's reputation as a liberal institution was not shared by all, although it may have started out with good intentions. In terms of local perceptions, when Colney Hatch was undergoing residential development, the area became known as New Southgate rather than Colney Hatch in order to avoid the association with the lunatic asylum. In 1937 Colney Hatch Asylum became known as Friern Barnet mental hospital.

7acres of the hospital grounds were lost to the new North Circular Road and assigned to the LCC for development as a playground. The hospital was finally closed down by the NHS in the early 1990s, who sold off a large part of the grounds for development and demolished more than half of the buildings. The main building stood empty for six years during which time it was vandalised and partly burnt down. The site was purchased by developer Luke Comer of Comer Homes in c.1996 who got planning permission to convert it into 256 luxury apartments set in mature parkland. Now named Princess Park Manor, the development was completed in phases by the Comer Homes Group, the last phase completed in 2009. According to the publicity for the development, the grounds in total contain 30 acres of parkland and are thus much reduced in size from their heyday. In the grounds an octagonal arcaded summerhouse and water tower can be seen; the former chapel has been converted into a swimming pool and gymnasium. The external appearance of the central block has been retained and is listed Grade ll. The rest of the complex is in a related style, if in parts clearly more recently built.   

The new public park, now known as Friern Village Park, is on the north side of the building. At first it was named Friern Park, and the later name change was to avoid confusion with another Barnet park named Friary Park (q.v.).and with the road called Friern Park, both of which are nearby. Although contained within the grounds of the Princess Park Manor development, the public park is managed by LB Barnet Parks Service. 

The original grounds were landscaped by William Brodrick Thomas (1811-1898) (who also played a part in the landscaping at Sandringham for the future Edward Vll). A study of English asylum designers of the period (see sources below) suggests that it was not unusual for the grounds of asylums to be designed by important landscape designers of the day although those at Colney Hatch funded by Middlesex were especially extensive and prestigious. The study places Brodrick Thomas among those who used an established formula for asylum grounds that was largely based on the aristocratic ‘country house’ landscape park and garden, including features such as ornamental drives, lodges, parkland, home farms, kitchen gardens etc. This formula was modified to fit medical needs, featuring, for example, enclosed exercise yards, known as airing courts, next to the asylum building within an ornamental layout of lawns, paths and borders.

The plan and topographical view shown in 'The Builder' of 1851 shows a tree-flanked approach, parterre-type planting on two forecourts in front of the main block and eight ‘Airing Courts’ between the wings and central spine laid out as formal gardens, and kitchen gardens beyond. Over time the grounds were extended and by 1929 covered 165 acres. The hospital was to a large degree self-sufficient for at least some of its existence, with food from its farm, a well with an elegant water pumphouse over it (still visible in the public park), its own gas production from coal delivered to the nearby station, and a cemetery. The latter was in use until 1873 but some facilities continued well into the C20th.

Over the years, the regime at the hospital changed as did the nature of the grounds, including the buildings within them. For example, in 1958 a smaller hospital/unit to the north-west of the site known as Halliwick Hospital was opened by the Duchess of Kent. The King’s Fund provided funding for landscaping the grounds around it, and it seems likely that these were designed by Sylvia Crowe, a well-known landscape architect. Landscape plans for the hospital are included in her archives held at the Museum of English Rural Life in Reading. However the Halliwick building has now been demolished and the land around it redeveloped.

Redevelopment has swallowed up most of the remaining grounds of the main hospital. Much of this was taken for housing although some was for other uses such as a retail park and a care home. The changes began even before the hospital was closed in 1993 and continued after that date. Gradually parcels of land were sold off to leave the much-reduced area of garden and parkland that is present now.

Friern Village Park is reached through the main gates to Princess Park Manor on Friern Barnet Road on the north side of the complex (the old main entrance to Friern Hospital). It is made up of two grassy, tree-covered roughly semi-circular areas, totalling about 11 acres, to each side of the main driveway that runs downhill to the entrance of the central building. They are each surrounded by a private road with its own perimeter greenery.

The gardens to the south of the building are private and appear to be divided into smaller scale units with hedging and shrubbery, all backing onto a modern housing estate.

At the main entrance to the Princess Park Manor development a map provided by Barnet Council indicates which areas are public and which are private. Once inside the Princess Park Manor gates there are signs to indicate that some of the area is Friern Village Park. Confusingly a number of the benches in the public park are inscribed 'Friern Park 2001'.