The History:
Headley Court (full name: Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre Headley Court) was a Ministry of Defence facility used as a rehab post for injured British troops from 1985 to 2018.
The mansion block built in 1899 was bought by the at-the-time-Chairman of the Bank of England, Lord Cunliffe.
Headley has also had a high profile visit from Prince Charles & Camilla in November 2005 when they visited the site to meet patients convalescing there, notably including Major David Bradley who remarkably survived a blast from an RPG in Iraq.
In July 2014 the serving Secretary of State for Defence Philip Hammond ordered the services provided at Headley Court to cease and would be transferred to a new DMRC site instead, with these decisions being finally implemented in 2018 when Headley closed for good, before being bought by a Angle Property in May 2019.
That wasn't quite the end of the road for Headley though. In April 2020 it was offered to the NHS for extra COVID-19 bed capacity to cope with the influx of new patients taking up both normal and ICU beds in hospitals. On 4th May 2020 Headley officially opened again, this time as the "NHS Seacole Centre" (in tribute to Mary Seacole) and speaking on this, Health Secretary Matt Hancock offered his thanks directly to Headley, saying "...while we continue to battle with Covid-19, we have opened our first NHS Seacole centre to provide dedicated rehabilitation services.”.
The Explore:
After a long train ride out to Leatherhead @xplorer.x and I, along with a couple others, made our way into the site through a surprisingly easy access route, considering it had been guarded by armed MoD only weeks beforehand. There wasn't too much left inside and I didn't get as many photos as I may have wished to because we were slightly disquieted by the idea there could be guards inside, though there turned out not to be any, and except for seeing one guard right outside a window I was next to at one point we were perfectly fine!
The first room we came to after traversing the stairs to the top floor was this. The lights looked very odd though made for nice photographs. The power didn't turn on in this building, though it in the mansion/manor part.
The kitchen area was immaculate, if not slightly bare.
The colours in the gym made it seem extremely vibrant, especially with the afternoon sun scintillating in through the windows.
This clearly would have been used as an opportunity for those attempting to regain their strength to practice and exercise their skills once again.
The assembly/sports hall here still had the advertisements on the walls encouraging positive thinking with the generally-otiose inspirational quotes strewn distressingly all around the hall.
Moving onto the mansion part of the explore now, it's clear this section is both much more antiquated and more palatial.
The rather deluxe carpet and pool table really made this building sparkle with lavishness.
The wooden architecture added exquisitely and impeccably to the archaic and dated nature of the building; even the lights seemed grand and expensive compared to the main block.
The wooden engravings in the wall really made the place feel homely and extravagant.
The view, however distorted it may be in the photo, was incredible. Green scenery was visible for miles out in the notorious London green belt; it's easy to see why a Lord would have purchased this property!
The upper corridor led to further bedrooms such as the one above, though were unfortunately devoid of any domestic furnishings of note.
I particularly liked the ceiling in this room because of its rose architecture, along with the ubiquitous red carpet that has become a recurring characteristic of this place by now.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this somewhat blast from the past explore
Headley Court (full name: Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre Headley Court) was a Ministry of Defence facility used as a rehab post for injured British troops from 1985 to 2018.
The mansion block built in 1899 was bought by the at-the-time-Chairman of the Bank of England, Lord Cunliffe.
Headley has also had a high profile visit from Prince Charles & Camilla in November 2005 when they visited the site to meet patients convalescing there, notably including Major David Bradley who remarkably survived a blast from an RPG in Iraq.
In July 2014 the serving Secretary of State for Defence Philip Hammond ordered the services provided at Headley Court to cease and would be transferred to a new DMRC site instead, with these decisions being finally implemented in 2018 when Headley closed for good, before being bought by a Angle Property in May 2019.
That wasn't quite the end of the road for Headley though. In April 2020 it was offered to the NHS for extra COVID-19 bed capacity to cope with the influx of new patients taking up both normal and ICU beds in hospitals. On 4th May 2020 Headley officially opened again, this time as the "NHS Seacole Centre" (in tribute to Mary Seacole) and speaking on this, Health Secretary Matt Hancock offered his thanks directly to Headley, saying "...while we continue to battle with Covid-19, we have opened our first NHS Seacole centre to provide dedicated rehabilitation services.”.
The Explore:
After a long train ride out to Leatherhead @xplorer.x and I, along with a couple others, made our way into the site through a surprisingly easy access route, considering it had been guarded by armed MoD only weeks beforehand. There wasn't too much left inside and I didn't get as many photos as I may have wished to because we were slightly disquieted by the idea there could be guards inside, though there turned out not to be any, and except for seeing one guard right outside a window I was next to at one point we were perfectly fine!
The first room we came to after traversing the stairs to the top floor was this. The lights looked very odd though made for nice photographs. The power didn't turn on in this building, though it in the mansion/manor part.
The kitchen area was immaculate, if not slightly bare.
The colours in the gym made it seem extremely vibrant, especially with the afternoon sun scintillating in through the windows.
This clearly would have been used as an opportunity for those attempting to regain their strength to practice and exercise their skills once again.
The assembly/sports hall here still had the advertisements on the walls encouraging positive thinking with the generally-otiose inspirational quotes strewn distressingly all around the hall.
Moving onto the mansion part of the explore now, it's clear this section is both much more antiquated and more palatial.
The rather deluxe carpet and pool table really made this building sparkle with lavishness.
The wooden architecture added exquisitely and impeccably to the archaic and dated nature of the building; even the lights seemed grand and expensive compared to the main block.
The wooden engravings in the wall really made the place feel homely and extravagant.
The view, however distorted it may be in the photo, was incredible. Green scenery was visible for miles out in the notorious London green belt; it's easy to see why a Lord would have purchased this property!
The upper corridor led to further bedrooms such as the one above, though were unfortunately devoid of any domestic furnishings of note.
I particularly liked the ceiling in this room because of its rose architecture, along with the ubiquitous red carpet that has become a recurring characteristic of this place by now.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this somewhat blast from the past explore
