This photograph is one of approximately 43 original photographs and photocopies of buildings, patients and staff assembled in a red covered, spirally bound photograph album (the album itself is now discarded and the images stored separately). The images in the album cover the period from the 1870s to 1965. A few photographs have inscriptions on the reverse; others had later separate labels in the album. The album was presumably compiled as a public record. It and other items came from the collection assembled by Dr Fred Stamp, the last medical superintendent of Willsmere Hospital before its closure in 1988. Original photographs have been uploaded to and described on Victorian Collections. The album itself is listed and linked separately showing the photographs in situ.A number of the photographs from the Willsmere Hospital album are confronting, especially given the condition of the buildings and facilities depicted, as well as the casual photographs of patients, which some viewers may find distressing. The album and its photographs are however an historically significant visual record of the Kew Mental Hospital, especially in the years 1951-1965.Small colour photograph of the official opening of the female hospital ward at the Kew Mental Hospital. "Ward F3. Female hospital ward"kew lunatic asylum, kew hospital for the insane, kew mental hospital, kew mental institute, willsmere mental hospital, willsmere hospital

The brick buildings in the photograph are of the former Sunbury Asylum and F3 Ward is in the foreground. Initially the site on Jackson Hill also known as SheOak Hill opened as an Industrial School for orphaned or neglected children and in 1879 it became an asylum where it continued to function as an asylum until the Victorian Government closed it on 20th November 1992.The Sunbury Asylum played an important part in Sunbury and wider community's development over 150 years. throughout its existence there was much interaction between the residents, staff and local community, many of whom were employed at 'The Hill' as it was known locally. A sepia non-digital photograph of a large brick hospital building with three nurses standing outside it on a narrow pathway edging a garden bed. A picket fence is at the rear of the building enclosing a small yard where washing is drying on the line.sunbury asylum, jackson hill, caloola, sheoak hill, ward f3