Description

The Rev. Dr. Andrew Reed had founded an ‘asylum for idiots’ in Highgate in 1847. New premises were built in Earlswood (near Redhill). The first Medical Superintendent there was Dr. John Langdon Down who developed a compassionate and radical new model of care for the inmates, and who first identified the condition which has now become known as ‘Down’s Syndrome’.

This organization was later known as the Royal Earlswood Hospital. It was closed in 1997. Its archives are held by Surrey History Centre.