Escape from it all at Broadmoor (with every mod con)
Once home to notorious criminals, former hospital is to be put up for sale with plans to turn it into a hotel
IT WAS home to Britain’s most dangerous criminals for more than 150 years.
But now the notorious Broadmoor Hospital building will be put up for sale within weeks, and could be turned into a luxury hotel, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.
NHS bosses are drawing up plans to invite multi-million pound bids for the Victorian site, and will launch a marketing campaign in the coming months.
If converted into a hotel, paying guests would be staying in rooms once occupied by infamous killers including Ian Brady, the Moors murderer, the gangster Ronnie Kray, and Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper.
The red-brick building lies empty after around 200 patients were moved to a new facility before Christmas.
West London NHS Trust, which owns Broadmoor, hopes the sale will attract bids of around eight figures. The proceeds will contribute towards the £250million cost of the new hospital, in the existing grounds.
The trust will invite bids from upmarket hotel chains, as well as developers who might former hospital home.
Other site buildings may be demolished and replaced with residential flats, it is understood, with the grounds possibly becoming football fields.
Sources close to the sale insisted guests would not be put off by the proximity of the new hospital, which treats patients suffering severe mental illnesses and personality disorders.
“We don’t think that should be a factor,” one insider said. “People have been living close to Broadmoor for decades. There are strict security arrangements in place. For most people living locally, the hospital really doesn’t have much effect on their lives.”
The main Broadmoor Hospital buildings opened in 1863 as Britain’s first secure facility for the “criminally insane”. It was declared “unfit for purpose” in 2003 after a string of suicides.
Any sale is likely to be complicated because parts are Grade II-listed, including its imposing gatehouse.
Christopher Costelloe, the Victorian Society director, said he would support efforts to turn Broadmoor into a hotel “in principle”. “It’s no good if these old buildings are left empty because they just rot away,” he added.
A West London NHS Trust spokesman said: “A range of potential uses have been identified, including commercial and residential.”