Warneford Hospital

The Warneford Hospital is a hospital providing mental health services at Headington in east Oxford, England. It is managed by the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. There is an active proposal to redevelop the hospital alongside a new college of the University of Oxford.

History

The hospital opened as the Oxford Lunatic Asylum in July 1826. It was designed by Richard Ingleman and built of Headington stone. The name commemorates the philanthropist Samuel Wilson Warneford. It was renamed the Warneford Hospital in 1843 and extended by J.C. Buckler in 1852 and by William Wilkinson in 1877.
The hospital originally charged fees for treatment of middle-class patients with a fund eventually being set up for the care of poor patients. Men and women were originally segregated on different sides of the hospital with this practice continuing into the 1950s.

In 2023, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust announced plans to redevelop the hospital as part of a new graduate college of the University of Oxford. The planning application was submitted in August 2025. A petition expressed concerns about the increase in car parking spaces.