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"My first memory of Cane Hill was moving into the farm house 43 years ago when it was still a working dairy farm,
my father (Mick Bennett) trained and worked as a nurse at the hospital for around forty years. I have many happy memories of the children’s
Christmas parties and the pantomimes. I worked in the staff canteen during the summer of 1979"
"I worked at Cane Hill from 1982 to 1985 and had some of the best times of my life there. Fellow staff were always happy to
help and support each other. It was a good team, hard work and sometimes very stressful. I met my wife there and I am still very happily married. I
miss it at times. Still life goes on."
"In 1981, I was appointed as a Consultant Psychiatrist with Camberwell Health Authority. This involved resettling
all acute and elderly patients from Lambeth at Cane Hill." "The hospital had reduced from 1000 plus to about 300 inpatients. At the front of the hospital, a wooden door opened
into a beautiful and almost pristine large Victorian church and an adjacent assembly hall. The hospital was in decline but still bore
the evidence of its nature as a total institution. The tailor’s shop, hairdresser’s salon (specialising in pudding basin cuts) fire station
and even water supply via an artesian well. The staff accommodation included cottages, the Nurses Home, Staff Club and an open-air swimming pool.
Despite, this there was a palpable air of decline, with empty derelict wards particularly on the male side and shabby décor." "I started to review patients with the staff to establish their diagnoses in order to make some attempts in rehabilitation.
We tried to contact families again and eventually were able to develop local services for local patients so that no Lambeth mothers had
to follow Charlie Chaplin’s who died in Cane Hill."
"I have many happy memories of Cane Hill. It felt like an 'asylum' to me when - after 11 years of social work
mostly in Deptford and feeling exhausted by the process - I was seconded to work in the 'Lewisham Resettlement Team' in 1987. I worked
at this just four years to 1991 but they were the most enjoyable years of my career." "I have nothing but respect for the staff caring for the patients. Staffing levels were often very 'challenging' but
overall the patients were well cared for and there was a real sense of pride in the work."
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