A HISTORY OF THE MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES IN PORTSMOUTH
THE ST. JAMES' JOURNAL
THE VILLAS
The Hampshire Telegraph of Saturday, 31st October 1908, gives an account of the opening by Councillor Foster, of four 'New Villa Blocks' described as bright, airy, healthy and up-to-date and named after noteworthy townsmen — Dickens, Brunel, Pink and King.
Charles Dickens, the novelist and reformer, is too well known towarrant further comment, but not everyone will have connected the name of Isarnbard K. Brunel, the famous civil engineer, with our City. He was, in fact, born and bred in Portsmouth. He introduced the broad gauge to British railway lines on the old G.W.R., and some of his bridges, for example that across the river Tamar at Saltash, are classics of their period. The name of Pink, likewise, has been connected with our City Council for nigh on one hundred years, and our Villa in named after the grandfather of the present Lord Mayor. King Villa takes its tally from Sir William King, who served for thirty years as Chairman of the Milton Asylum Committee and, as such, saw so many improvements in outlook and practice.
Light Villa was opened by Lord Mayor Frank Privett, J.P., in 1928 and named after Alderman Light, the then Chairman of the Asylum Committee. Four years later, in 1932. the last two Villas, Gleave and Devine, were opened by Lord Mayor F. G. Foster; the former named for Alderman Walter Gleave and the latter after a much loved Medical Superintendent of our own Hospital, who lived and died here.
Of the other buildings outside the main Hospital structure, Ellen and Harry Cook wards are of too recent origin and naming to be of present interest, although their opening by Harry Cook himself, a few years before he died, was a welcome event. The King Villa Bungalows, situated near the old mounting stone, were recently enlarged and equipped as a Nursing School.
Autumn 1961