Essex Hall was originally built in 1840 to plans prepared by architect Lewis Cubitt as the Victoria Hotel. Erected at great cost in an Italianate style for ‘the Railway Baron’ Sir Morton Peto it lay beside the Colchester North Railway Station. Proving unsuccessful as a hotel, Peto offered the use of the building to relieve over-crowding at the Highgate Idiot Asylum, whilst the new Royal Asylum for Idiots at Earlswood was being completed. In 1859 the building was significantly enlarged and converted into the Essex Counties Asylum for Idiots. A timber infirmary hospital was added in 1868 following an outbreak of fever, but this was replaced in 1889 by a new hospital for 35 patients designed by R.F. Vallance; these works also included the erection by 1883 of a gymnasium/recreation hall, bath rooms, lavatories and a steam laundry. A second phase completed in 1885, provided additional accommodation for 60 inmates together with new day-rooms, dormitories and class-rooms. A childrens infirmary and additional accommodation for 60 infirm patients was completed in 1889; this being followed ten years later by new school and workshop blocks designed by F.W. Chancellor of Chelmsford. By the 1880’s the institution was run by John Turner and his son Dr. Douglas Turner; the latter openly advocated the reinstatement of the mentally handicapped back into the community and was responsible for the founding of the Turner Village Hospital in 1934 (SMR No. 15659).
Following closure Colchester Borough Council recommended the retention of the original building as a ‘typical example of Victorian railway architecture’ and ‘as an important part of the townscape.’ However, in 1985, the building was suddenly demolished and the site is now occupied by a modern housing development. <1>.