Report - Headley Court - Epsom - Sept 19

[Bikin Glynn]

Headley Court was an Elizabethan farm house bought by the Cunliffe family, from Tyrrell's Wood, Leatherhead. They later sold this farm house and built in 1899 the imposing mansion at the centre of Headley Court to the north, namely under Lord Cunliffe, who was Chairman of the Bank of England. Its architect was Edward Warren. During World War II, it was used as the Headquarters for the VII Corps and then for the Canadian Corps. Since the war, it has been used as a Royal Air Force and Joint Services medical rehabilitation centre.

Purchased after that war with money from the Royal Air Force Pilots and Crews Fund, a public collection as a tribute to the deeds, including the Battle of Britain efforts of the RAF, Headley Court lost its social club focus to expand its medical and rehabilitation credentials and become the Defence Services Medical Rehabilitation Centre (DMRC), which aims to return all those service personnel injured or seriously ill to full fitness.

In July 2014, the Minister of Defence, Philip Hammond, announced that the services provided by Headley Court would be transferred to a new centre to be developed at Stanford Hall. The opening of the new Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre by the Duke of Cambridge took place in June 2018. The centre at Headley Court ceased operations in September 2018 and the site was bought by Angle Property in May 2019. They are currently working on plans to redevelop the site including substantial new housing replacing many of the existing ancillary buildings.

The Explore
An unplanned visit we just happened to be passing but after a bit of an undignified entrance to the site avoiding secca in his van we spent a good few hours here.
On entering the main block we immediately set of an alarm but this was ringing throughout our whole visit & no one responded.
Never made it in the old hall which is a shame, but the obvious access people were using was well & truly blocked up!

Thanks For Looking

 

[Hidinginplanesite]

Nice photos , I saw a lot off this location on isntgram a few month back .. I do wonder what it like now though

 

[Bikin Glynn]

Nice photos , I saw a lot off this location on isntgram a few month back .. I do wonder what it like now though

Not sure if anything has happened with it, the housing behind was already being worked on when we were there & strangely the entrance to that was gaurded by a Gurkha. (Only one we seen) we even asked him if he could get us access to main house which didn’t go well because
A - he didn’t seem to understand us
B - looked very angry like he wanted to kill us. Lol

 

[HughieD]

That place is a a minter. Wonder if it'll stay that way. Good work mate.

 

[Bikin Glynn]

That place is a a minter. Wonder if it'll stay that way. Good work mate.

Yeah its untouched by vandals for sure, the main pool/ guy could be reopened again tomorrow!

 

[jtza]

Very neat in there, nice report

 

[Calamity Jane]

Nice shots there. Hope this gets developed and is used in a similar way, our war vets deserve this and so much more.

 

[Seffy]

Nice to see it hasn’t been trashed... yet. Well shot!

 

[Bikin Glynn]

Nice to see it hasn’t been trashed... yet. Well shot!

Yeah that suprised me tbh, think the presence of secca helps & the grounds etc still being kept keep the goons away.

 

[sirjonnyp]

Nice to see this, I mentioned it to @professor frink a couple of years ago as it's on his turf but not sure if he ever did anything with the info. I couldn't have a look because of my job at the time. I didn't realise that it had cropped up on the UE scene already. I hadn't realised that it had been sold and wasn't MOD property anymore, I would have had a look myself before I left the UK had I known.

There's two sides to the estate, the hospital / rehab side that you saw and the original estate buildings and grounds on the other side of the road. The officers mess is/was in the original estate buildings and was fucking mint, imagine the RAF club in Piccadilly but with barely anyone there and not as many airfix paintings. I was given a quick tour, the main thing I remember (aside from the library having a really odd collection of books) was that the arbor in the grounds at one point was supposedly the largest in the world. The officer that gave me the tour also said that the outhouse buildings on the estate side (servants quarters maybe) were modelled as train carriages, I think because that's how the family that originally owned it had made their money. I might be slightly off on the reason why, it may have been because one of them really liked trains or something.

There was also some Churchill memorabilia just lying around ready to be boxed up - when I went it was quite close to the end (that's also why I was there). In its history as a DMRC it was responsible for a lot of pioneering work with an array of injuries, and before funding was siphoned away it was world-leading. It's arguable that over the course of history warfare led to the advancement of medical care and healthcare techniques, with field hospitals / medics often being responsible for pioneering new ways of treating multiple casualties quickly. Their ideas would be picked up by regular hospitals and developed in a less pressured, more-resourced environment - a good example of this is the building of the Burmese railway. DMRC HC was a great example of pioneering rehabilitative care - especially for physical injuries such as lost limbs - through to the 80s.

Apologies for the essay, just thought I could share some more background. It was a real shame that it was closed, not sure that I understand that rationale but Stanford Hall is at least closer to DMSW and more central to the majority of barracks. Good work all the same though. I wonder if it's worth NP given the lack of trashing?

Edit: Just seen that it got hit up a fair bit last year, should have been paying more attention!

 

[Bikin Glynn]

Nice to see this, I mentioned it to @professor frink a couple of years ago as it's on his turf but not sure if he ever did anything with the info. I couldn't have a look because of my job at the time. I didn't realise that it had cropped up on the UE scene already. I hadn't realised that it had been sold and wasn't MOD property anymore, I would have had a look myself before I left the UK had I known.

There's two sides to the estate, the hospital / rehab side that you saw and the original estate buildings and grounds on the other side of the road. The officers mess is/was in the original estate buildings and was fucking mint, imagine the RAF club in Piccadilly but with barely anyone there and not as many airfix paintings. I was given a quick tour, the main thing I remember (aside from the library having a really odd collection of books) was that the arbor in the grounds at one point was supposedly the largest in the world. The officer that gave me the tour also said that the outhouse buildings on the estate side (servants quarters maybe) were modelled as train carriages, I think because that's how the family that originally owned it had made their money. I might be slightly off on the reason why, it may have been because one of them really liked trains or something.

There was also some Churchill memorabilia just lying around ready to be boxed up - when I went it was quite close to the end (that's also why I was there). In its history as a DMRC it was responsible for a lot of pioneering work with an array of injuries, and before funding was siphoned away it was world-leading. It's arguable that over the course of history warfare led to the advancement of medical care and healthcare techniques, with field hospitals / medics often being responsible for pioneering new ways of treating multiple casualties quickly. Their ideas would be picked up by regular hospitals and developed in a less pressured, more-resourced environment - a good example of this is the building of the Burmese railway. DMRC HC was a great example of pioneering rehabilitative care - especially for physical injuries such as lost limbs - through to the 80s.

Apologies for the essay, just thought I could share some more background. It was a real shame that it was closed, not sure that I understand that rationale but Stanford Hall is at least closer to DMSW and more central to the majority of barracks. Good work all the same though. I wonder if it's worth NP given the lack of trashing?

Edit: Just seen that it got hit up a fair bit last year, should have been paying more attention!

Brilliant info. Yes as usual I am one of the last in there lol there are some excellent reports showing the pool still full & the interior of the hall!

 

[Five.Claws]

So rare to see a place so pristine. Looks like it would be somehow a very calm and relaxing explore, once inside.

 

[Bikin Glynn]

So rare to see a place so pristine. Looks like it would be somehow a very calm and relaxing explore, once inside.

Would of been bit couldn’t hear yerself think with the alarms going off lol. It was nice in the main pool block, no disturbances in there

 

[Seffy]

Can't think about this place now without picturing @mockney reject 's swim when the pool was full of water o_O

 

[Five.Claws]

Would of been bit couldn’t hear yerself think with the alarms going off lol. It was nice in the main pool block, no disturbances in there

Oh, I must have missed that bit somehow! I respect your bravery sticking around after the alarms went crazy then. I've only had the alarm treatment once, but it was so deafening and unnerving that I hoofed it pretty quick!