The hospital buildings were designed by architect SE Bindley of the Public Works Department in a Queen Anne style.

Receiving Houses were used to provide accommodation for those patients who required only short term diagnosis and treatment.

From 1954 Royal Park functioned as a hospital providing short term diagnosis and accommodation only.

The Mental Health Act 1959 (No.6605, operational since 1962) changed the title of "Receiving House" to "Psychiatric Hospital".

[2] As a consequence of the Victorian Government's policy of deinstitutionalisation, Royal Park Hospital was decommissioned in the 1990s.