York Historic Environment Record

Clifton Hospital has its origins in the 1845 Lunacy Act which required each of the three authorities in the York area to provide accommodation for pauper lunatics which had previously been housed in various madhouses and workhouses as well as at York Lunatic Asylum. The North and East Ridings formed a Joint Committee to develop a combined institution and a site was chosen off the Shipton Road, north of Clifton Ings and northwest of the city. George Gilbert Scott in partnership with William Bonython Moffatt provided the plan for the original building based upon the usual corridor plan of the time. The main gate was protected by a lodge cottage (North Lodge).