Site investigations - Kingseat History

1929 - construction  began on Kingseat. It was named after a hospital in Scotland
1932 - in operation.
1939 - added a 2-storey nurses home
1930-1940 - extensions added

As per standards of the time, the hospital was built as a series of villas catering to different patient groups (by sex and diagnosis, and eventually also by age). The villas were markedly larger than those built in the same period at Seaview, and the location of the hospital in a prosperous agricultural area and its large estate meant that the hospital's staff and patients produced much of their own food. By early 1945, the hospital had eight villas and a total patient capacity of 400. By 1946 patient numbers approached 900. Employment levels increased along with patient numbers, approaching 200 by the early 1950s, a distinctly higher staff to patient ratio than at Seaview.

1950s - 1970s - hospital campus was expanded and modified as expectations concerning the provision of social activities and various (traditional and innovative) therapies evolved - the change in mindset signalled in part by the change in name from ‘mental hospital’ to ‘psychiatric hospital’ in 1961. 

1973 - therapeutic pool added

1977 - swimming pool added

Patient profile

In contrast to Seaview, where the majority of patients were from distant centres, Kingseat's resident population was drawn primarily from the expanding urban area of Auckland. This meant that a full range of services had to be offered and that beds were not left empty for long. Additionally, the population was younger than at Seaview, and included intellectually handicapped children after 1943. It also included more patients under active treatment, including those for whom periodic restraint was deemed necessary. In 1967, on instructions from the Ministry of Health, the hospital gave up its 660-acre farm as part of its ‘modernisation’, thereby distancing itself from Victorian forebears and launching the hospital into its last decade of comfort and self-assurance.

1980s - a decline of resident numbers. 

1995 - capacity reduced to 110 beds (or about 10% of its peak capacity) and South Auckland Health announced that it would be closed and the site and buildings sold. 

1996 - Kingseat was sold by South Auckland Health in 1996, after the Government’s deinstitutionalisation policy insisted a move away from continuing hospitalisation of mentally ill patients in favour of community care and smaller acute and rehabilitation units, closer to their families.
1999 - (July) Kingseat Hospital was officially closed. The last patients were moved to a newly refurbished secure mental health unit on Bairds Road in Otara.
1999 - grounds initially considered as a site for a new prison (600 inmates).
2000 - legal action taken against the Tainui tribe for financial issues involving the former hosptial
2003 - Tainui's sale of Kingseat Hospital complete—almost 6 years after the deal was done.
2004 -  complaints filed by former patients against the government for claims of mistreatment and abuse during 1960s and 1970s.
2005 - Spookers opened business in the former nurses home

Sale

Soon after, the purchase of the 60-ha site by the Tainui (a Maori iwi based in the Waikato region) Development Corporation was announced. The reaction to the announced price was one of surprise: 

“The decision to sell this 60 ha psychiatric facility at a bargain-basement price of $6.8 million—soon after spending $10 million on its upgrading—ranks among the most stupid and unforgivable made by this Government” (Truth, 5-01-1996). 

Further opposition to closure crystallised around concerns voiced by the police for public safety stemming from the loss of a secure treatment site (New Zealand Herald, 10-11-1995).

Within a year, Tainui had put Kingseat back on the market: “Tainui Development Ltd. executive director Greg Parker said Tainui bought the property from South Auckland Health with the intention of establishing an Auckland-based postgraduate residential college …[but]… the college would now be in central Auckland close to the university” (Waikato Times, 31-5-1997). It was noted that “The Kingseat property contains more than 50 buildings, 14 two-level brick and tile villas, an administration complex, 107-room nurses home, lecture theatre and kitchen. Recreational facilities include sports fields, bowling green, swimming pool and tennis courts.” 

Possible uses were noted to be “as an education or health facility, retirement village, equestrian centre, horticultural centre or rural lifestyle subdivision” (Waikato Times, 31-5-1997).

Tainui accepted an offer to purchase from the The Prince Corporation (a Korean-based investment group), but the Corporation subsequently sought to set aside the agreement on the “grounds of alleged misrepresentation as to the state of the property” ( Waikato Raupatu Lands Trust, 2002). Pending the result of litigation, Tainui retained control of the property, renting part of it back to South Auckland Health until it was reported that “today, Kingseat Hospital will be officially closed. The last patients held in the former mental institution will be moved off the rural complex and transported to a newly refurbished secure mental health unit” (Scoop Auckland, 28-07-1999). 

Tainui's sale of Kingseat Hospital took almost 6 years to complete. An out-of-court settlement reached with Auckland-based Prince Corporation, which agreed to buy the 60 ha former psychiatric facility in South Auckland for an undisclosed sum in 1997 (Waikato Times, 30-01-2003). In the same article a Tainui spokesperson was quoted as saying “We are glad to see the back of this headache.” 

Reuse

In the same year the headline “Kingseat looks likely as new 600 inmate prison” (Scoop Auckland, 16-08-1999) announced another parallel with the Seaview experience. The prison proposal was dropped, in part because of opposition from nearby residents and their local governments: “Delays and uncertainty they say are stalling land sales in the area and causing suspicion between residents” (Scoop Auckland, 16-08-1999).

Oct 2005 “One of New Zealand's notorious former psychiatric hospitals will become the home of a horror show. A haunted house is set to open next week in the old nurses’ home at the former Kingseat Hospital at Karaka, south of Auckland” (New Zealand Herald, 22-10-2005). The same article went on to note that “The company is aware of the potential for accusations of bad taste by choosing a former psychiatric hospital, where many experienced mental suffering and some patients say they were mistreated. ‘That's why we’ve got it in the nurses’ home and not the actual hospital itself.’ ‘Spookers’ manager Julia Watson said ‘We also will be having absolutely nothing to do with a mental asylum’.” In her regular column in Canvas magazine, Daya Willis (2005, p. 10) wrote that “while there are undoubtedly excellent arguments for the old Kingseat Hospital grounds being put to use after all these years, there's also something creepy—something downright disrespectful, methinks—about running a fake scare-athon out of a property that saw so many people live through real horrors.” Clearly, as these comments suggest, commercial exploitation of stigma raises important questions about the ease by which selectivity in the collective memory can be fostered.

2013 - property developer revealed plans to transform the site of the hospital in a countryside living estage for 450 homes, sparking debate over which buildings and their park-like ground should be retained as a reminder of its past. Also the year during which 'Asylum Paintball Park' was opened using 2 of the former hospital buildings (villa 10 & 16)

'Hauntings' The most common apparition reportedly seen at Kingseat Hospital was the 'Grey Nurse', believed to be a former staff member (seen in the old nurses home).

Wikipedia ref

Report for/by Auckland City Council

Council decisions 2013

Rezoning of Kingseat area