The Heatherwood Hospital site is located in Ascot, in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. Ascot is a small affluent town in East Berkshire, around 4 miles east of Bracknell and 25 miles west of central London.
The site is in close proximity to local amenities including the world famous Ascot racecourse which is opposite Heatherwood and hosts Royal Ascot annually. Ascot High Street is also located nearby and offers a range of shops, restaurants and cafes.
The site is a short walk from Ascot train station which has direct trains to London Waterloo (52 minutes) and trains to London Paddington via Reading (1 hour).
The site was originally known as ‘Heatherfield’ and housed a Victorian country residence and estate. It was reportedly first used as a hospital in 1922, officially opened by the Duke of Connaught in May 1923 and initially used to treat the children of ex-servicemen from the First World War.
The hospital has also been used for external shots for the film ‘Carry on Matron’ (1972), with the main hospital building used as the backdrop for the fictional ‘Finisham Maternity Hospital’.
Part of the property was sold to Thames Valley Housing Association in 2006, located to the south of the main hospital buildings and falls outside of the surplus land to be disposed of. This has been developed for residential accommodation and is known as Brook Avenue.
More recently, the vendors acquired Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals in 2014 when at the time they were Frimley Park NHS Foundation Trust before becoming Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust.
The site is bounded to the north by Ascot High Street (A329), Kings Ride (A332) and the London Road/Windsor Road roundabout, whilst a large sloping woodland area lies directly to the south and is currently designated as part of the greenbelt.
A range of 1 to 4 storey hospital buildings are spread around the site. The buildings range in age from the original single storey buildings constructed in the 1920’s to new ward blocks constructed in the 1980’s.
The site sits within The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead and benefits from outline planning permission for up to 230 dwellings.
The site forms part of a wider hybrid planning consent (reference number: 16/03115/OUT) comprising full planning permission for the development of a new hospital and associated admin hub, change of use of an existing building to provide a GP practice, change of use of existing woodland to Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace (SANG) and outline planning permission for the demolition of the existing hospital and the redevelopment of up to 230 private dwellings.
The objective is to provide a mix of high quality housing types, including terraced and semi-detached dwellings and multi-storey apartment blocks, which meet the local housing need.
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