Springfield Hospital in Tooting has been reborn as Springfield Village, a mixed‑use neighbourhood that places modern mental health care at the centre of everyday life. According to the developers, the 82‑acre site now houses two purpose‑built mental health buildings flanking a new public square, a 32‑acre park officially opened on 10 July 2025, hundreds of homes, retail and community facilities, and a care home — part of a long‑running redevelopment designed to dismantle the separation between hospital and community. The trust behind the project says the change is intended to normalise mental health services and improve wellbeing for patients and neighbours alike.

The scale of the project reflects a shift from the outline masterplan granted more than a decade ago to a denser present‑day delivery. Planning records show the original 2012 consent envisaged a replacement clinical campus, open green space and several hundred homes; developers and project documents now describe a finished scheme of around 1,288 new homes across the site, of which roughly a third are designated as affordable. The trust and the master developer note that the programme also provides land for a school, improved public realm and transport links intended to knit the village into the surrounding borough.

At the heart of the scheme are two new mental health buildings — Trinity, which opened to patients in 2022, and Shaftesbury, which followed in 2023 — created through what the project materials describe as a £150 million investment in clinical facilities. The South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust has consistently framed the development as a “health‑led” regeneration: the care buildings sit in Chapel Square and are deliberately visible, so that patients, staff and visitors use the same cafés, shops and park as local residents.

Springfield Park is the most tangible symbol of that ambition. Kajima Partnerships, one of the master developer partners, said the 32‑acre park was officially opened on 10 July 2025 and described it as the largest new green space in London since the 2012 Olympics. The park is reported to include a pavilion café, an amphitheatre, sensory gardens, ponds, play and youth facilities, a fitness trail and more than 700 newly‑planted trees. The trust’s own information had previously set out a staged opening to 2027, underscoring that parts of the public realm have been delivered in phases.

A clear thread running through the project is conservation alongside change. Much of the old hospital fabric was demolished, but several historic buildings were retained and repurposed: the Grade II‑listed main hospital building, protected under Historic England’s listing since 1983, has been converted into apartments with restored period features and gardens. Project leads told reporters that parts of the Victorian complex were at risk when the redevelopment began and that sensitive restoration was an early priority.

The master developer STEP — a joint venture between Sir Robert McAlpine Capital Ventures and Kajima Partnerships — and construction partners such as Sir Robert McAlpine, Barratt, City & Country and London Square, say the scheme demonstrates a funding model in which the value created by new housing helps finance modern clinical facilities on surplus NHS land. “We focused carefully on maximising the value of NHS surplus land while ensuring strong value for money,” Richard Coe, Project Director at Kajima Partnerships, told local reporters, adding that the approach could be repeated elsewhere. Such claims are presented by the development partners as a template for health‑led regeneration, but they also require independent scrutiny as the scheme matures.

Delivering the village was not without difficulty. Project lead Harriett Gladwell‑Philips told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the build endured supply‑chain disruption after Brexit, Covid‑19 restrictions and the practical complexities of construction on a live NHS site. “Some days it felt like whack‑a‑mole — you’d solve one problem and three more would pop up,” she said, describing the labour of coordinating conservation, clinical continuity and community works.

Trust leaders emphasise the social as well as clinical benefits. Ian Garlington, the Better Communities Programme Director at the mental health trust, told reporters that the aim has been to create “a place that supports recovery and inclusion” where small everyday interactions — staff buying lunch, patients walking in the park, children visiting cafés — help break down stigma. The trust says it runs community events, offers free mental health first‑aid training and is engaging local schools, businesses and charities to build an integrated neighbourhood.

The development’s planning history underpins its phased delivery. Wandsworth Council’s records show the outline permission dating back to 20 June 2012 and a series of reserved matters applications that have guided housing, the park and the conversion of listed buildings. Construction is expected to continue through to 2028 as later phases of housing and community infrastructure are completed, according to project schedules reported by those involved.

Springfield Village is being presented by the trust and developers as a demonstrator of how health provision, affordable housing, heritage restoration and large‑scale green infrastructure can be woven together. Industry statements stress the potential to replicate the financing model on other surplus public sites, but independent evaluation will be needed to confirm whether the social, clinical and economic benefits claimed are realised over the long term. For now, the transformation of a once‑isolated Victorian asylum into an open, mixed community is tangible: the park is open, new clinics are operating and the neighbourhood continues to take shape.

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Source: Noah Wire Services