Uploader's Comments

Lewis Lloyd acquired land in Shirley and had a mansion built in 1854. He adopted the name of a local wood, "Monks Orchard", for the whole estate. Lloyd's Monks Orchard House was one of the most substantial mansions in the Croydon area. It had 19 bedrooms, a billiard room, library, and numerous other rooms. The estate covered 1,540 acres. When the estate came up for sale in 1920, only parts of it found buyers, and the rest, including the part now known as Monks Orchard was offered again in 1924. This was purchased by the City of London Corporation for the relocation of the Bethlem Royal Hospital, which had long outgrown its Lambeth home. Building of the new hospital started in 1928, but unfortunately this involved pulling down the old mansion. The hospital development did not need all the land and parts of it were sold off for housing development. In 1930, Bethlem Royal Hospital (or Bedlam as it was known) was moved from what is now the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth to here. This is the main entrance to the site, seen across Monks Orchard Road.