Wonford House Hospital

This article is about the mental health hospital in Exeter. For the general hospital built in the grounds, sometimes called Wonford Hospital, see Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital.

Wonford House Hospital, also previously known as the Wonford House Asylum and Exe Vale Hospital is a building built as an 'asylum for lunatics', and which has continued to provide mental health care, now being the headquarters building of the Devon Partnership NHS Trust, and housing a number of mental health units in the grounds.

Wonford House Hospital
Illustration of the hospital from 1870
Shown in Devon
Geography
Location	Wonford, Exeter, Devon, England, United Kingdom
Coordinates	50.7150°N 3.5063°W / 50.7150; -3.5063
Organisation
Care system	Public NHS
Type	Specialty
Services
History
Opened	1869
Links
Lists	Hospitals in England

History

Wonford House Hospital in 2025

The Metropolitan Commissioners in Lunacy made a report in 1842 that the City of Exeter Lunatic Asylum was in need of additional facilities. Rather than expanding the existing site, the commissioners purchased around 20 acres of land in Heavitree for a new building.^[1]

The foundation stone for the new hospital was laid on 18 October 1866,^[2] and was opened on 7 July 1869 by William Reginald Courtenay, 11th Earl of Devon, Earl of Devon and the Mayor of Exeter.^[3]

Services

The main house is now the headquarters of the Devon Partnership NHS Trust, which provides mental health services across Devon.

In the grounds of the house is Devon's only Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), the Junipers, which opened in 2019, with 10 beds.^[4][5]