The area known as Park Prewett was common land dating back to the late thirteenth century before being enclosed in the sixteenth century as Park Prewett Farm. In the 1990s a dig discovered archaeological finds believed to date from the Iron Age (1200-600BC) and Romano-British (43-410AD) periods.

The land of Park Prewett was purchased in 1899 following a report by the Lunacy Commission into overcrowding in the psychiatric hospital at Knowle near Fareham, and the need to serve the ever-growing population of Basingstoke. Designed by George Thomas Hine work began in 1913 to build a purpose built hospital, under the direction of Thomas Rowbotham. This took four years to complete due to the interruption of the First World War, and it opened as a psychiatric facility in 1917. The hospital was also served by its own railway line connecting to the mainline at Basingstoke station, primarily for the transport of troops.

Due to the requirements of medical facilities caused by the war the building was first used by the Canadian Army Medical Corps as a convalescent hospital; known then as the Number Four Canadian General Hospital.

In 1921 the building reverted to the purposes for which it was designed and became known as the Park Prewett Mental Hospital, housing 1,400 patients by 1939. This, however, was short lived as it returned to military use for the Second World War. Rooksdown House was used by pioneering plastic surgeon Sir Harold Gillies and became a plastic surgery unit in 1940 to aid in the horrific injuries of men returning from the battlefield, not only specialising in repairs but also in reconstructive surgery.

Before WW2 Sir Harold was already well renowned for his pioneering work in cosmetic and sex-change surgery, but being of modest character, he was somewhat overshadowed by his more famous cousin Archibald McIndoe who trained under the tutelage of Sir Harold himself.

In 1948 the building was taken under the wing of the NHS and renamed the Park Prewett Hospital. This served many people over the years who suffered from mental illness but eventually the hospital closed in 1997, and in 2005 the site was bought by English Partnerships and the area developed and the hospital blocks converted into housing. The names of Park Prewett Road, Watertower Way and Gillies Meadow were maintained to reflect the history of the area.