Statement of Cultural Heritage Significance:

Statement of Significance The Royal Park Psychiatric Hospital, designed by the Public Works Department, and constructed in 1905-07, is of Regional significance for architectural and historical reasons. Architecturally, the layout of the complex, and the design of the various buildings are the most notable features. The spreading, symmetrical arrangement of the pavilions is unusual, and only found in other institutions of the period. The various buildings are designed in a distinctive and attractive Edwardian manner, featuring large spreading Marseilles tiled roofs extending over continuous front verandahs that also form covered walkways joining the ward blocks, large hexagonal bay elements, and decorative brick gables. Many interior details survive, notably the stair in the administration building, but the 1950s refacing of the administration block is regrettable. Historically, the separate pavilion planning of the buildings in an open spacious site is the second notabe example of the new approach to the care of mental patients in Victoria. In a departure from the barracks style asylums of the 19th century, the pavilion style arrangement of the asylum buildings built at sunbury in the 1890s were an innovation, and this arrangement is also seen in the development of the various buildings at Mont park, built between 1910 & 1917.