Monument record 1169102000 - HMP Grendon

HMP Grendon was built in 1959-62 on land adjacent to Spring Hill prison, and opened in 1962. Originally conceived in 1939 as a special psychotherapeutic institution for 300 inmates, offering a wide range of agricultural and recreational activities along with vocational training and employment, the site at Grendon was only finalised in 1955. In 1956 plans were drawn up and published in 'The Builder', with the main accomodation wings comprising long open corridors flanked by cells and connected to an administration, chapel, hospital and assembly block and a Y-shaped holding block. When the prison was finally built, the accomodation was arranged in two large wings on several storeys without open landings and the Y-shaped block had been dropped (B3).