In a quiet corner of Sutton on the border of Surrey, residents live next door to more than 1,000 inmates in two separate prisons. While you may expect locals to be disturbed by alarms and shouting ringing out from the prison, the reality is quite the opposite in this sleepy part of the city.
Belmont in Sutton is home to HMP Downview, a women’s prison with a capacity of more than 300 while the men’s prison next door, High Down has a capacity of more than 1,000.
Locals living in the streets backing onto the two prisons say they are rarely disturbed by the two prisons on their doorsteps. In the summer they hear occasional chatter when the prisoners have their windows open or sounds of a football game happening.
The prisons opened in 1992 and if you didn’t know they were there it would be easy to miss them. Less than a mile away is the quaint Belmont High Street where one shopkeeper told us having the prison on their doorstep is good for business with officers and visitors coming in to buy snacks.
Some residents we spoke to on a visit to the area remember being invited to look around when the prisons were first built. While others have enjoyed a meal at a restaurant in High Down, The Clink, which is staffed by prisoners.
Margaret Brown, 81, has lived in close to the prisons for 53 years and remembers when it was a dairy farm. She said: “We were used to seeing the cows council over the top of the road. Before it was built we were told it would either be 400 houses or a prison.
“I think the prison might put some people off living here but we don’t have any trouble at all, in the summer we hear them having a football match.”
Before it was a prison, part of the building was a mental health hospital. Known as Banstead Asylum it first opened in 1877 and it closed down in the late 1980s when it was called Banstead Hospital.
Tina Haynes, 73, has lived in the area since 1984 and remembers going into the prison when it was first built, before prisoners moved there. All local residents were invited to see what it was like.
“They showed us the individual rooms and the state of the art gym, it was interesting going inside,” she said.
“It was originally a mental health hospital and they had to keep the fascia of the building.
“In those days we would see the odd patients walking up and down the road, there was one man, who they called Jesus, who wore a white suit and would walk into Sutton regularly.”
A livery yard in Fairlawn Road backs on to the high walls and barbed wire of HMP Downview. Horse rider Jo, who didn’t want to give her surname, said you sometimes hear “chatter” from inside the prison when the windows are open in the summer.
Louise Holloway, says she only hears noise from the prison once a year when they have, what she imagines is an open day.
But Terry O’Shea, who has lived close to the prison for the past 30 years says things were not always as calm and quiet as they are now. “In the early days,” he said, “when we first moved here you would get a few escaped prisoners.
“You’d see the helicopters and sometimes the police would turn up with firearms.
“The prison was fairly new and I suppose it was getting used to the security, they had some issues. There were a few riots there and I could here them from here.
“Now it is all all silent. I’ve even been in there to The Clink restaurant where everything is done by the prisoners.
The prisons are surrounded by woodland and just a few roads of homes but less than a mile away is Belmont Station and a nice high street.
Sarfraz Ahamad from Crescent Grocers in Station Road said many of his customers are prison officers. He has even served people who have just been released. “All the prison officers who work in their come in, they are my customers, it is good for my business,” he said.
“People who are visiting people in the prison also come in and buy snacks and drinks to take in.
“Last year I had one guy who had just come out of prison, he was carrying a large bag and he came in bought red bull and cigarettes.”
Down the road is London and Belcher Florists which gets called from relative of people in prison wanting to send flowers. However, the prison only accepts deliveries from one approved company.
Owner Amy Nordemann said: “We do get asked whether we can deliver flowers to the prisoners but the prison says only Interflora can deliver. It is a shame really as it would be good for us.”
