St Francis Hospital, Haywards Heath

The hospital, which was designed by Henry Edward Kendall Jr. in the Italianate style using a corridor plan layout, opened as the Sussex County Asylum in July 1859.^[2] An extra storey was added to the ward blocks in 1864.^[2] It became the Brighton County Borough Asylum in 1903 and the Brighton County Borough Mental Hospital in 1919 before joining the National Health Service as St Francis Hospital in 1948.^[3]

After the introduction of Care in the Community in the early 1980s, the hospital went into a period of decline and part of the site was made available to facilitate the construction of the Princess Royal Hospital in the late 1980s.^[2] St Francis Hospital briefly became the west wing of the Princess Royal Hospital in 1992 but closed completely in November 1995.^[2] The site was subsequently developed for residential use as Southdowns Park.^[2][4]