Knockbracken Healthcare Park

The Knockbracken Healthcare Park is a mental health facility based on the Saintfield Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is managed by the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust.

Knockbracken Healthcare Park
Belfast Health and Social Care Trust
Knockbracken Healthcare Park
Location in Northern Ireland
Geography
Location	Saintfield Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Coordinates	54.5393°N 5.9063°W / 54.5393; -5.9063
Organisation
Care system	Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland
Type	Specialist
Services
Speciality	Mental health
History
Opened	1829
Links
Website	https://belfasttrust.hscni.net/hospitals/knockbracken/

History

The facility was commissioned to replace the old Belfast Asylum on Grosvenor Road.^[1] It was decided to acquire Purdysburn House, an early 19th century house designed by Thomas Hopper for Narcissus Batt, a banker, and its extensive grounds.^[2] The new mental health facilities, known as Purdysburn Villa Colony, were designed by George Thomas Hine and Tulloch and Fitzsimmons with the first four new villas being built on the eastern part of the site in 1906 and a further six villas, together with recreation hall, administration block and churches, being built in a similar location in 1913.^[3] It joined the National Health Service as Purdysburn Hospital in 1948 and subsequently evolved to become Knockbracken Healthcare Park.^[4]

Purdysburn House itself, which had been built on the western part of the site, was demolished in 1965 and HM Prison Hydebank Wood was built in that location in 1979.^[5]