Cardiff City Mental Hospital opened in 1908. During the planning stage it was referred in name as both Whitchurch Asylum and Cardiff City Asylum. The Asylum tag was dropped prior to opening making it the first county asylum in the UK (and possibly Europe) to open without the asylum tag. Costing £350’000 to build the 150ft water tower dominated over the male side of the hospital. During the war the hospital was re purposed as the Welsh Metropolitan War Hospital. It was the largest emergency service hospital in south wales. Like many county asylums of the time it was fully self sufficient with a power house located to the side of the water tower that had its own steam engines and generators. To the far corner of the site the farm supplied meat and vegetables to the patients and staff. The NHS took over the hospital with its creation in 1948 and the hospital remained fully open, with the exception of west ward 5/5a, till April 2016 when the final patients were moved out. Some services remained on site till the summer of 2017 before the site was fully vacated. With all wards, the tower, ballroom and administration listed the site awaits a mixed residential/business conversion.
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