Established in 1878 by the Metropolitan Asylums Board The hospital was designed to take imbecile children aged between 5 and 16 who would have a special course of education and manual instruction. Just after the hospital was built a second complex was built to the west take those over 16 who were considered to be “improvable” and were trained in workshops. Those not capable of improvement were transferred to another section of this building. Further work followed with two infirmaries in 1881, a recreation hall in 1883 and a third complex, known as the pavilions, completed in 1888. From 1911 the institution was for patients that could be educated and all other patients were removed. Handicraft workshops were build and the name changed to the Darenth Industrial Colony, and again in 1919 to the Darenth Training Colony. The asylum was self-contained. Inmates, and some locals, worked on the Asylum Farm In the 1930’s a new nurses home was built on the site of one of the infirmary blocks. The asylum finally closed in 1988 and demolished in 1995.