3-028-563 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Wonford House, Exeter, Retreat for the Insane, 1870. 'The affairs of the institution are under the control of a committee of donors, who...admit patients on terms suitable to their circumstances. The officers are all paid by salary, so that no one connected with the institution has the slightest interest in the payments made by patients. The aim...has been that [this mansion] should partake of the character of a home, and not of an asylum. The dining, drawing, music, and billiard rooms are all handsome, and well furnished; and there are suites of rooms...for single patients, which give almost the privacy of separate dwellings. In short, Wonford House not only affords all the comforts of a first-class private asylum, but combines the universally recognised advantages of a public institution...Wonford House is situated on elevated ground...From every side the prospect is charming, and can scarcely be surpassed even in the beautiful county of Devon. The design of the building was prepared by the late Mr. Cross; and the works have been executed by Messrs. Moass and Sons, builders, Exeter, at a cost of about £35,000. The stone used in the building is Westleigh, a limestone raised near Tiverton...All the windows are dressed with Bath stone'. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.