Belmont Hospital - now the site of the Belmont Heights Housing Estate - was demolished in the 1980s.

During its existence the building had fulfilled as many as nine different roles. Only after the last World War did it become Belmont Hospital, a centre with an international reputation for the treatment of psychiatric patients.

Earlier in this century it had been a workhouse, and, during the First World War, it even functioned as a hospital and place of internment for German prisoners of war.

Originally, however, the building operated as an industrial school.

Built in the early 1850s, the South Metropolitan District Schools, as it was known, accommodated children from 17 parishes in south and south east London.

It was one of the first in a new breed of institution: large, out-of-town schools where destitute pauper children from the biggest cities could be maintained and educated.

In this environment, away from the ordinary workhouse, they could be brought up to be good members of society. All the children were provided with an industrial training so that they might have a livelihood when they eventually left.

SMD Schools, or Sutton Schools as it was more commonly called, was situated in an isolated location - Belmont was not to emerge until later in the 19th century.

It was very much a self-sufficient affair though, having a specially drilled well, an infirmary and a gas works. It even had its own farm, of about 60 acres, which was worked by older boys.

The school's population totalled 900 in the census of 1861 - and at this time Sutton and Cheam had less than 3,500 inhabitants. In its first 20 years 14,000 children had already passed through the books.

In 1875 a new wing almost as big as the original structure opened. By 1880 there were 1,500 inmates.

Six blocks with associated buildings were constructed in 1882 specifically for the girls on a site east of Cotswold Road.

Virtually all of these still exist and are now used by the hospitals in that area. After nearly 50 years of services, Sutton schools closed following the 1902 Education Act.

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