The Spitalfields Trust was established in 1978 with the aim of saving the remaining Georgian houses in Spitalfields, London, which were under threat of redevelopment as the city’s financial centre expanded eastwards. The Trust's intervention helped to save a number of eighteenth century roads including Fournier, Princelet, Wilkes, Elder and Folgate Streets. By 1993 the Trust's successes in the East End led it to branch-out to other areas of the country, notably restoring and repairing Allt-y-Bela in Usk, Monmouthshire, a late medieval farmhouse.
The Stop the War Coalition (StWC) (informally just Stop the War) is an anti-war group set up on 21 September 2001. The coalition has opposed the various wars that are claimed to be part of the ongoing war on terrorism. It has been the most prominent group in Britain campaigning against the war in Afghanistan and the Iraq War. The demonstration against the latter on 15 February 2003, which it organised in association with Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and the Muslim Association of Britain, is claimed to be the largest public demonstration in British history. The Coalition continues to campaign actively through demonstrations and other means at continuing military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the foreign policy of the US and the UK.
The Swadhinata Trust is a London based non-partisan secular Bengali group that works to promote Bengali history and heritage amongst young people. The Swadhinata Trust has been operating since November 2000, offering seminars, workshops, exhibitions and educational literature to young Bengali people in schools, colleges, youth clubs and community centres in the United Kingdom. The Swadhinata Trust promotes Bengali history and culture to ensure its representation as an essential part of the history of Britain and by extension, our contemporary world.
Photographer Edward Thompson recorded the people and events of the Occupy London movement and demonstrations, 2011-2012.
No further information at present.
Unite Against Fascism (UAF): Unite Against Fascism is an anti-fascist pressure group in the United Kingdom. UAF was established in 2003 following the electoral successes of the British National Party, beginning as a coalition that included the Anti-Nazi League, the National Assembly Against Racism, the Trades Union Congress, Unite – the Union, and UNISON.
UAF aims to raise awareness nationally of the potential affects to the UK and British society if fascist and far right groups (including the British National Party and the English Defence League), gain seats in local, national and European elections.
Love Music Hate Racism: Love Music Hate Racism is a music-orientated campaign established in 2002 by the Anti Nazi League and Unite Against Fascism in response to the perceived increase in support for the far right and the British National Party.
The campaign involves concerts aimed at communicating an anti-racist message. It follows in the tradition of the 1970s Rock Against Racism campaign, which also involved the Anti-Nazi League.
Anti Nazi League:The Anti-Nazi League (ANL) was established in 1977 on the initiative of the Socialist Workers Party (with sponsorship from some trade unions) to oppose the rise of far-right groups in the UK. It was brought to a close in 1981, but re-launched in 1992. In 2003 it merged with Unite Against Fascism.
Rock Against Racism: Rock Against Racism (RAR) was a campaign set up in 1976 by Red Saunders, Roger Huddle and others, including the Anti Nazi League, as a response to an increase in racial conflict and the growth of white nationalist groups such as the National Front. The campaign involved musicians from a range of genres playing at concerts with an anti-racist theme with the aim of discourage young people from embracing racism.
Reginald George (Reg) Ward was born in Thanet in 1924 and was by trade a plumber. He had a long and distinuished career in local government, serving on the former Margate Borough Council for nearly 25 years and leading the Labour Group for much of that period. He was also member of Thanet District Council and was a Kent county councillor in the 1970s. In 1972, in recognition of his services, he was made a Freeman of the Borough of Margate. He also served as a governor of many Thanet schools and as Chairman of the Quarterdeck Youth Club.
He stood unsucessfully as Parliamentary candidate for Canterbury in 1955 and Ashford in 1959. He has represented the Labour Party at regional and national conferences and lectured for the Party at a number of schools. He was Chairman of the Kent Labour Party and the Thanet West CLP, and a member of the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society (later SE Retail CWS).
The Co-operative Women's Guild was formed in 1883 following the first inclusion of a women's page in Co-operative News. Its aim was to spread the knowledge of the benefits of co-operation and improve the conditions of women with the slogan "co-operation in poor neighbourhoods"; changed its name to the Women's Co-operative Guild, 1885; Margaret Llewelyn Davies becomes General Secretary and Lilian Harris appointed Cashier to the Guild, 1889; under their direction the organisation expanded rapidly from 51 branches and a membership of 1700 in 1889 to a peak of 1500 branches and a membership of 72000 in 1933. By this time the name of the organisation had again been changed to the Co-operative Women's Guild.
The archive comprises material pertaining to Frederick Porter Wensley (1865-1949) [FPW] and his family. FPW rose from humble origins in Somerset (his father was a cobbler) to become arguably the greatest British detective of his age. His early career was pursued substantially in the East End of London and the family lived for much of this period at 98 Dempsey Street (just off the Commercial Road) in Stepney - moving in 1913 to a new suburban development in Palmers Green.
The archive tells the story of FPW's marriage to "Lollie" [Laura] Martin (1869-1943) and their three children Frederick Martin Wensley (1894-1916), "Edie" [Edith] Mercy Wensley - later Cory (1897-1974) and Harold William Wensley (1899-1918). That the collection has survived is largely due to Edie who after the death of her brothers in the 'Great War' took upon herself the task of keeping the memories of the family alive. Edie's own story is then taken forward. The correspondence gives a remarkable insight into her social life, development, marriage to another detective 'Bert' [Herbert] Cory (1893-1946) and the upbringing of FPW's only grandchild Harold Frederick Wensley Cory (1927-1997).
The Wensley Family archive thus overlaps with the earlier part of the Cory (see above) Family Archive. The former relates to London whilst the latter relates to the family's period of residence in Salisbury, Wiltshire.
None available at present.
Towards a Water Saving Trust Steering Group was established c 1996. Secretary Sean Creighton organised the Towards A Water Saving Trust Conference 1997.
Official Records of the College of Arms
Manuscripts housed in the former press A, no longer extant. Louise Campbell (Campbell and Steer, A Catalogue of Manuscripts in the College of Arms, vol 1: Collections, 1988) speculates that at around the time the system of pressmarks was being rearranged (c 1675-1680) 'A' was used as 'an open classification into which new acquisitions of one or a few volumes could be fed'.
Volumes 1-54 formed part of the collection of Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel, 4th Earl of Surrey, 1st Earl of Norfolk (1585-1646). Art collector, politician, and patron of antiquarians and scholars. Grandson of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk (executed for treason in 1572) and son of Philip Howard, 13th Earl of Arundel (convicted of treason in 1589, d 1595). Restored to title of Earl of Arundel in 1604. Possibly educated at Westminster School, where would have been pupil of William Camden (Clarenceux King of Arms 1597-1623), then Trinity College, Cambridge. Married Aletheia, daughter of Gilbert Talbot, seventh earl of Shrewsbury. Died in Italy in 1646. The collection was dispersed in 1678 by his grandson, Henry Howard, 6th Duke of Norfolk and Earl Marshal.
Volumes 55-64 were put in the same press in the College of Arms' Record Room but were not part of the collection donated by Thomas Howard. However, they have been bound and numbered as though they were. Since W H Black's catalogue was printed a further 6 volumes added to the press have been treated as though part of the collection (HDN 58, HDN 74, HDN 75, N.90, N.94, and a second N.61 (Historia de Hispania)).
Collection donated to the College by Thomas Povey, colonial entrepreneur and administrator, 1669. Louise Campbell, in A Catalogue of Manuscripts in the College of Arms: Collections, vol 1 (1988), shows that at least six manuscripts, and probably another three, were written by William Bowyer, Keeper of the Records in the Tower of London from 1563, and that more manuscripts were added to the collection by his son, Robert Bowyer, Keeper of the Records in the Tower of London from 1604.
Thomas William King, Rouge Dragon Pursuivant, 1833; York Herald, 1848.
The L and M series, and the Visitation records, represent the main collections of the College pre-dating the English Civil War, being mostly the work of Tudor heralds. Samson Lennard's 1618 list of the contents of the library indicates that these volumes were part of the collection then, although descriptions are usually somewhat too general to allow for precise identification. The volumes are listed in the 'Syllabus' of College of Arms' manuscripts, compiled in c 1780
In early catalogues these manuscripts were listed without reference numbers but with descriptions which allow them to be identified as comprising part of what is now the Numerical Schedules collection. In around the 19th century they were housed in large wooden boxes / trunks, and listed according to the number of the box in which they were stored. In around 1960 Mrs V Lamb was employed to sort the unbound manuscripts found throughout the College, both those in trunks and those unboxed in various rooms, and she redesignated them as 'Numerical Schedules'. The first 12 schedules correspond to box numbers. Schedules 13-34 were created by Mrs Lamb from the other manuscripts found loose in the Muniment Room and other parts of the College. However, in literature referencing these manuscripts the 'box' numbers often persist, particularly as Sir Anthony Wagner's Catalogue of English Medieval Rolls of Arms, which describes some of these manuscripts, was published before this sorting took place
Augustine Vincent, born c 1581-4, was the third son of a Northamptonshire gentleman, William Vincent of Wellingborough. He was a scholar and antiquary, and as a clerk of the Records in the Tower of London acquired a thorough knowledge of public as well as private records. He was appointed Rose Rouge Pursuivant Extraordinary in 1616, then Rouge Croix Pursuivant in 1621, and Windsor Herald in 1624. He conducted heraldic visitations as deputy to William Camden, Clarenceux King of Arms, and produced one publication, A discoverie of errours in the first edition of the catalogue of nobility, in which he attacked a work of Ralph Brooke, York Herald (A catalogue and succession of the kings, princes, dukes... of England), who had previously attacked a work of Camden's. He died in 1626 when he was no more than 45 years old and was buried at St Benet's, Paul's Wharf, traditionally the heralds' church. His son, John, inherited and added to the collection.
The Albert Dock Seamen's Hospital was established in 1890 as a branch of the Dreadnought Seamen's Hospital, Greenwich, which was founded in 1821. The London School of Tropical Medicine was established in the Albert Dock Hospital in October 1899, by Philip Manson-Bahr, and remained there until moving to Euston in February 1920. The Hospital became part of Newham Health District under the City and East London Area Health Authority (Teaching) in 1974 and was converted from acute to orthopaedic use. It came under the direct control of Newham Health Authority in 1981 and subsequently became a homeward bound mental handicap unit.
The Accident Relief Society was founded in 1838. In 1868 it moved to offices in Great Winchester Street, London. Although the Society contrived to relieve a number of deserving cases every year, it was never able to achieve financial stability. In 1879 its remaining assets were transferred to the Samaritan Society by authority of the Charity Commission.
The Bow (No 8) Group Hospital Management Committee was established by the North East Metropolitan Hospitals Board on the introduction of the National Health Service in July 1948. The Group consisted of Poplar, St Andrew's, and St Clement's Hospitals. The Committee was dissolved at the end of March 1963, when the Group was merged with the West Ham Group to form the Thames Group of Hospitals.
Bethnal Green Hospital, London was originally an infirmary built by the Board of Guardians of the Parish of St Matthew, Bethnal Green, and opened in 1900. It was built on a site once part of Bishop Hall Farm, and leased in 1811 by William Sotheby to the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews. The site was renamed Palestine Place and became the centre of the Society's activities in London. The foundation stone of a Chapel (later known as the Episcopal Jews Chapel) was laid in 1813 and in the following years schools for boys and girls and 14 houses were built.
The Board of Guardians of the Parish of St Matthew, Bethnal Green, approached the Society in 1891 with a view to purchasing the estate as a site for a new infirmary, but their offer was refused. In 1894 the Board applied to the Local Government Board for an order to purchase the site. Although the purchase price of £18,000 for the freehold and £17,500 for the leasehold was regarded as expensive the purchases were completed in 1895, except for a small piece of land which reverted to the Guardians in 1909. In 1948 a further piece of land on Parmiter Street was purchased by the London County Council from the Elizabeth Mary Bates Trust for the Moravians. The building was designed by Messrs Giles, Gough and Trollope and was intended to accommodate approximately 750 patients. The total cost, including the purchase of the site, was £212,894-7s-10d. The clock from the old Palestine Chapel was transferred to the tower on the new administrative block. Some of the minor furnishings, such as mattresses and tables, were made by the inmates of the Workhouse in Waterloo Road.
The Hospital was certified for 669 patients and was opened on 5th March 1900, with the first patients admitted on 17th April. The central administrative block included facilities for the Nurse Training School, which held the first examinations of candidates in 1901. The first Medical Superintendent was William James Potts and the first Matron Joanna E Hopper. From 1900 to 1906 the Hospital received 14,705 admissions. The Hospital was planned principally with chronic sick in mind and this remained the case until the First World War. In March 1915 the Military Authorities took over the Hospital for the use of wounded soldiers. Civilian patients were moved to St George-in-the-East, or to the Workhouse in Waterloo Road. The Military Hospital was commanded by Colonel E Hurry Fenwick, a Surgeon at the London Hospital from 1890 to 1910. During the military occupation a Pathological Laboratory was installed. It was not until February 1920 that all patients and staff were back in the Hospital. From 1920 to 1930 changes were made to provide a wider range of services for acute patients.
Under the Local Government Act, 1929, the Board of Guardians was dissolved and the Hospital passed to the London County Council on 1st April 1930. By 1929 casualty and receiving blocks had been built, a small X-ray Department had been added and an operating theatre was under construction. The Hospital also had a VD unit, which was closed in 1952. Its certified accommodation was 650 and it had 551 inmates. The Workhouse was mainly occupied by chronic sick and infirm under the charge of the Hospital's Medical Superintendent. The Hospital came under the control of the London County Council's Central Public Health Committee, which in 1934 became the Hospitals and Medical Services Committee. There was also a Bethnal Green Hospital Sub-Committee dealing with immediate day-to-day matters. During the 1939-1945 War, the Hospital suffered some minor bomb damage.
With the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948 the Hospital became part of the Central Group (No 5) within the North East Metropolitan Region. By now the number of beds was considerably reduced, being little more than 300; in 1953 there were 313 beds, with an average daily occupation rate of 260. The Group Pathology Laboratory was established at the Hospital in 1950. A Geriatric Unit was established in 1954. In 1966 the Central Group was dissolved and the Hospital became part of the East London Group; in the same year, the Postgraduate Medical Education Centre was started. In 1972 the Obstetrics Department was closed. Under the National Health Service reorganisation of 1974 Bethnal Green Hospital became part of Tower Hamlets District, managed by the City and East London Area Health Authority. In the same year the Gynaecology Department was closed. From 1977 to 1979 the Hospital's role was changed from acute to geriatric, with the closure of 167 acute beds and their replacement with 120 geriatric beds for Tower Hamlets patients in St Matthew's Hospital. In June 1978 the surgical beds were closed and the remaining 40 medical beds were closed in August 1979. The Hospital closed in 1990 when patients and staff transferred to the newly built Bancroft Unit for the Care of the Elderly at the Royal London Hospital (Mile End).
The hospital was founded in 1841, primarily through the efforts of Mr. (afterwards Sir Philip) Rose (1816 - 1883), a solicitor. At the age of 25, reputedly after one of the clerks at his law firm, who was suffering from consumption, now known as pulmonary tuberculosis, was refused admittance to several hospitals, Rose determined to establish a hospital for sufferers of tuberculosis without the financial means to pay for treatment. Rose was Honorary Secretary of the Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest, Brompton from its inception until his death. The charity's objects were to provide an asylum for in-patients for patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and a hospital for patients with other chest diseases and a dispensary to provide advice and medicine for less urgent cases to be treated on an out-patient basis.
The charity began work by converting Chelsea Manor House into a hospital for in-patients and opening an out-patient branch at 20, Great Marlborough Street. A purpose built hospital was opened on the Fulham Road in 1844. Ten years later a western wing was added giving a total in-patient accommodation of 200 beds. The hospital, which attracted Royal patronage from the time of its inception, was regulated by The Consumption Hospital Act of 1849 and became incorporated in 1850. The hospital continued to expand, supported by figures such as Charles Dickens, Benjamin Disraeli, and the famous singer Jenny Lind, who performed an in concert to raise £1,606 for the Building Fund (equivalent to over £90,000 in today’s money). A sizeable donation came from Cordelia Read, who left her personal estate to the hospital, including valuable paintings by John Opie, to the surprise of her family. After a long dispute, the hospital received £100,000 which was used to build a new extension in 1882, bringing the total number of beds to 368. It was again enlarged in 1900.
Although primarily associated with tuberculosis, Brompton Hospital had a number of departments which dealt with other diseases of the chest. A throat department was started in 1889, and expanded in 1922, and a radiological department was instituted in 1900, and expanded in 1925. The hospital provided post-graduate educational facilities in the form of lectures and clinical demonstrations by the medical staff. In 1905, the hospital established a sanatorium and convalescent home at Frimley, Surrey, with accommodation for 150 patients. The regime centred on a programme of 'graded exercise', which progressed from total bed rest to taking part in carefully defined physical labour. The advent of surgical procedures for treating tuberculosis in the twentieth century led to further improvement of radiograph and surgical departments. A cardiac department opened in 1919, and in 1934 a physiotherapy department opened, initially as a "breathing exercises" department; by 1948, the department had expanded to include six full-time and one part-time 'instructresses', due to the success of these techniques in patients with chest conditions.
The hospital became part of the National Health Service in 1948 and its management was put on a joint basis with the London Chest Hospital, Bethnal Green as the Hospitals for Diseases of the Chest. From the 1960s, as sanatoria became less important for the treatment of tuberculosis patients, Frimley Sanatorium transitioned into a convalescent home, looking after post-operative cardiac and respiratory patients from Brompton Hospital, London Chest, and National Heart Hospital, and other London teaching hospitals, until its eventual closure in the 1980s.
In 1988, Queen Elizabeth II awarded a 'Royal' title to the Brompton and its associated hospitals and the hospital was henceforth known as the Royal Brompton Hospital. In 1994 The Royal Brompton became an NHS Trust (at the same time the London Chest Hospital joined St. Bartholomew's and The Royal London Hospital to form The Royal Hospitals NHS Trust, afterwards known as Barts and The London NHS Trust). In 1998, the Royal Brompton merged with Harefield Hospital NHS Trust to form The Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust.
In 1994 a merger between The Royal London Hospital and Associated Community Services NHS Trust, St Bartholomew's Hospital and The London Chest Hospital resulted in the creation of The Royal Hospitals NHS Trust. In 1999 the Trust's name changed to Barts and The London NHS Trust. The Trust continued until a further merger with Whipps Cross University Hospital NHS Trust and Newham University Hospital NHS Trust in 2012. Management of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children came under the Trust in 1995 and the hospital was formerly part of the Trust from April 1996 until the hospital's closure in 1998 whereupon services transferred to The Royal London Hospital.
The Trust initially came under the North East Thames Regional Health Authority and East London and The City District Health Authority more locally. From 1996-2002 it fell under NHS London Regional Health Authority and then North East London Strategic Health Authority until this was subsumed into NHS London Strategic Health Authority in 2006.
The City and East London Area Health Authority (Teaching) was established in April 1974 as a result of the National Health Service Reorganisation Act, 1973. It was one of six Area Health Authorities in the North East Thames Region, and encompassed the Districts of City and Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets. It was abolished at the end of March 1982 by the Secretary of State under powers conferred on him by the National Service Act 1977 and the Health Services Act 1980.
The Joint Liaison Committee was formed in 1973, and consisted of representatives of Hospital Management Committee, Boards of Governors, Local Authorities and the Regional Hospital Board. The purpose of the Committee was to prepare for the 1974 re-organisation.
Tuberculosis/Chest Diseases Care Committees seem to have been formed by a number of organisations in East London, including the Metropolitan Boroughs of Hackney and Bethnal Green, Poplar, Stepney and Shoreditch, c1940s-1980s. A Chest Clinic Care Committee covered the work taking place in a number of boroughs c1970s-1980s. This collection also includes surviving records of Caplin House, an organisation for the treatment of homeless alcoholic TB patients.
The London Hospital Dental Club was founded in 1951 to provide a forum for former and present alumni and staff of the Dental School. The Club organised annual clinical meetings, annual dinners from 1953, and provided a benevolent fund. The Dental Club also relaunched the London Hospital Gazette in 1975, in association with the Medical Club. In 2000 the London Hospital Dental Club merged with the London Hospital Medical Club and Barts Alumni Association, to form the Barts and The London Alumni Association.
The Eastern Dispensary was founded in 1782 in Great Alie Street, Stepney, moving to new premises in Leman Street in 1858. Owing to wartime difficulties it closed in September 1940 and in 1944 the building was leased to the Jewish Hospitality Committee. After the Second World War it was proposed that the Dispensary should be transferred to the London Hospital. This proved unacceptable to the Charity Commissioners, and the assets were transferred to the Marie Celeste Samaritan Society by a Charity Commission scheme in 1952.
The East London Hospital For Children And Dispensary For Women was founded in a converted warehouse at Ratcliff Cross in 1868, and originally known as the Shadwell Hospital for Women and Children. It was established by Dr Nathaniel and Mrs Sarah Heckford as a result of their experiences in Wapping during the 1866 Cholera outbreak. In 1875 the Hospital moved to a new building in Shadwell, helped by Charles Dickens raising funds by publishing two articles about the Hospital. In 1930 it had 136 beds. Its name was changed in 1932 to the Princess Elizabeth of York Hospital for Children.
In 1942 an Act of Parliament was passed to amalgamate the Hospital with The Queen's Hospital for Children in Hackney to form The Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children. The Hospital was administered as one, but functioned on two sites: Queen Elizabeth, Hackney Road and Queen Elizabeth, Shadwell. A third site at Banstead, Surrey, the Banstead Wood Country Hospital, was opened in 1948. By the early 1960s the number of beds at Shadwell had fallen to less than 50. The Hospital was closed on 30th April 1963 and the building subsequently demolished.
The Queen's Hospital for Children was founded in 1867, in Virginia Road, Bethnal Green as the North Eastern Hospital for Children. The Hospital moved to Hackney Road, Bethnal Green, shortly after its foundation, and was renamed Queen's Hospital for Children in 1907. The Hospital was amalgamated with the Princess Elizabeth of York Hospital, Shadwell, in 1942, and renamed the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children. The Queen Elizabeth Group Hospital Management Committee was formed in 1948 to administer The Queen Elizabeth Hospital on its three sites on Hackney Road, Shadwell and Banstead.
On the closure of the Shadwell site in 1963 the Hospital amalgamated with the Hackney Group to form the Hackney and Queen Elizabeth Group. This arrangement lasted until 1968, when the Queen Elizabeth Hospital was detached from the Hackney Group and placed under the Board of Governors of the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street. The Hospital's Convalescent Home was managed by a Committee which selected a site in Bognor in 1868. The foundation stone was laid in October 1897, and the Home closed in 1912.
The East End Maternity Hospital was founded in 1884 as the Mother's Lying-in Hospital in Glamis Road, Shadwell. Its name was changed in 1928. In 1930 it had about 60 beds. During the Second World War the Hospital occupied premises at Hill Hall, Essex, and Tyringham House. With the advent of the National Health Service in 1948 it became part of the Stepney Group of Hospitals, which was merged in 1966 to form the East London Group. The Hospital was closed in 1968.
The East London Nursing Society was established in 1868 with the aim of providing trained nurses to nurse the sick poor in their own homes in East London. Three private nurses were initially engaged to work in Bromley, Poplar and St Philips, Stepney Way. The Society merged with the Metropolitan and National Association for Providing Trained Nurses for the Sick Poor (formed in 1874), becoming its Eastern Division. However in 1881 the East End Branch assumed its original, independent position. Princess Christian became President of the Society in 1883, and in 1891 the Society became affiliated with Queen Victoria's Jubilee Institute for Nurses. From 1912 the Society's nurses began to attend the School Centre in Poplar. In the years that followed, the London County Council and Borough Councils increasingly supported the Society's work. In 1943 the London County Council asked the Society to take responsibility for District midwifery training in the area.
East Ham Memorial Hospital was founded as a voluntary hospital in 1902 and was administered by a monthly Committee of Management. Originally designed by Silvanus Trevail, it was extended in 1914 and 1928 to provide 25 beds, and was rebuilt in 1929 to designs by Mennie and Smith to provide 100 beds. The Hospital became part of the NHS in 1948, and from 1963 was included in the Thames Group of Hospitals within the North East Metropolitan Hospital Board. In 1974 it became part of Newham Halth District and had at that time 142 beds. It closed as an acute hospital, being re-opened by Newham Health Authority to provide 87 acute psychiatric and psychogeriatric beds in 1990. East Ham Memorial Hospital became part of City and East London Family and Community Health Services in 1994 and Newham Community Health Care Trust in 1995.
Forest Gate Hospital was established in 1913 by the West Ham Board of Guardians, as the Forest Gate Sick Home. Accommodation was provided for the chronic sick, together with 50 mentally handicapped adults and 25 mentally handicapped children, including epileptics. Some maternity patients were also admitted and their numbers grew steadily. The buildings originally housed an Industrial School established by the Guardians of the Poor of the Whitechapel Union in 1854. In 1869, management of the School was transferred to the Board of Management of the Forest Gate Schools District (comprising Hackney, Poplar and Whitechapel Unions). A disastrous fire in 1890 caused the deaths of 20 of the 84 resident boys. Poplar Union took over management of the School in 1897, and it continued as an industrial training school until its closure in 1906. In 1908 it reopened as a branch workhouse for the Poplar Union, but closed again in 1911.
The buildings were purchased in 1912 by the West Ham Board of Guardians, and the Forest Gate Sick Home opened in 1913. Under the Local Government Act, 1929, the Sick Home was transferred in 1930 to the County Borough of West Ham Public Assistance Committee. By 1930, the Hospital had 550 beds for chronic sick and mentally handicapped patients, including a Maternity Unit which was opened with 64 lying-in beds. In 1931 temporary buildings were erected to provide an additional 200 beds for chronic sick patients transferred from the Central Homes, bringing the bed complement up to 723. During the Second World War, patients were evacuated to the South Ockendon Colony, Essex. Much of the accommodation for non-maternity patients at the Hospital was destroyed by bombing, including 2 direct hits which necessitated the demolition of 5 wards. In view of this and the unsuitability of some of the accommodation, the bed compliment was reduced to 201. In 1944 management of the Hospital was transferred to the Public Health Committee of West Ham County Borough. By 1945, accommodation for 128 residents patients had reopened and the building of a new Maternity Unit with 102 beds began in 1947.
The Hospital became part of the National Health Service in 1948, and management was transferred to the Regional Hospitals Board. The Maternity Unit was expanded into a number of existing wards. In 1974, the Hospital, which by now had 116 beds and was called Newham Maternity Hospital, became part of Newham Health District under the City and East London Area Health Authority (Teaching). With the opening in 1985 of Phase 2 of Newham General Hospital, which included Maternity beds and a Special Care Baby Unit, the Hospital was closed by Newham Health Authority.
St George in the East Hospital was erected in 1871 by the Board of Guardians, under the provisions of the Metropolitan Poor Act, 1867. A Nurse Training School was established in 1893. In 1930, when it passed to the London County Council, it had 406 beds.With the establishment of the National Health Service in 1948 the Hospital was transferred to the Stepney Group Hospital Management Committee. The Hospital was closed in September 1956.
The Hospital was a weekly journal established in 1886 by Sir Henry Burdett, who also edited the title, at first alone and later jointly. From 1888 Burdett also published an annual directory entitled Burdett's hospitals and charities: being the year book of philanthropy and The Hospital annual. From October 1921 The Hospital was published on a monthly basis as The Hospital and Health Review. From 1935, The Hospital was merged with The Hospital Gazette, which itself had been founded in 1905 and was the official organ of The British Hospitals Association and The Incorporated Association of Hospital Officers. Latterly it was published as The Hospital and Health Services Review (from 1972) by the Institute of Health Service Management, London, which also publishes The IHSM Health Services year book. From 1988 the journal was known as Health Services Management.
The London Chest Hospital was founded in 1848 as the City of London Hospital for Diseases of the Chest. Its founders, who were predominately Quakers, recognised the needs of people suffering from diseases of the heart and lungs, particularly pulmonary tuberculosis, who were not able to afford adequate medical attention. The institution was intended to offer the same advantages as the Brompton Hospital (established in 1842) conferred on West London. The Royal Chest Hospital, City Road, (founded in 1814), was perceived as too small to accommodate the growing number of patients in the north and east of London seeking care.
The Hospital was originally a public dispensary, offering out-patient care only in Liverpool. Plans were soon drawn up for a new hospital and a site was obtained through the lease of crown property at Bonners Fields, Victoria Park, East London. In 1851 the foundation stone was laid by Prince Albert, who together with Queen Victoria, contributed towards the building costs of thirty thousand pounds. The new hospital, designed by Mr Ordish, opened in 1855 and was soon able to provide 80 beds. By 1881 the original design had been completed to provide 164 beds and was one of the first to employ the corridor system. Patients were admitted on governors' recommendation and were asked to contribute towards the cost of their care. With the development of the open air treatment for tuberculosis, balconies were added to the building in 1900, and the Hospital opened its own Sanatorium for women and children at Saunderton in Buckinghamshire. In 1923 it was renamed the City of London Hospital for Diseases of the Heart and Lungs, before changing again in 1937 to the London Chest Hospital. A Pathological Laboratory and Research Institute opened in 1927 through the support of the Prudential Assurance Company, and in 1937 a new surgical wing was added. Hospital buildings were badly damaged by bombing during the Second World War, but remained open thanks to public generosity in funding repairs.
The London Chest Hospital became part of the National Health Service in 1948 and was designated a teaching hospital, along with Brompton Hospital. The Board of Governors was reconstituted to cover both hospitals, with membership increased from 20 to 30. The Hospital became part of a Special Health Authority, the National Chest and Heart Hospitals (with the National Heart, the Brompton and Frimley Hospitals) in 1974. The Hospital expanded its work to take in 4 chest clinics in East London, and its cardiothoracic surgery also grew with the opening of new theatres and intensive care facilities during the 1980s. In 1988 the Hospital shared in the award of a `Royal' title to the Brompton Group. In line with government recommendations following the publication of the Tomlinson Report in 1982 the Hospital joined St Bartholomew's and the Royal London Hospitals to form the Royal Hospitals NHS Trust in April 1994.
The London Infirmary, as it was originally named, was established in the autumn of 1740 in Featherstone Street and occupied premises in Prescot Street 1741 to 1757. In 1752 the foundation stone of the hospital building on Whitechapel Road (later known as Front Block) was laid. The first patients were admitted in 1757, and the building of the front block was completed in 1759. There were subsequent alterations, developments and extensions, but parts of the original building remained in use until 2012. East and West Wings were added in 1770 and extended in the 1830s. Both these extensions were demolished in 2007, together with the remainder of East Wing. The Grocers Company Wing was opened in 1876 and the Alexandra Wing in 1982: the latter replaced an earlier Alexandra Wing, opened in 1866 and was opened as a Dental Hospital in 2014. In 1755 and 1772 the Governors of the Hospital were able to purchase the two moieties, or halves, of Red Lyon Farm, which lay immediately behind the Hospital, between Whitechapel Road and Commercial Road. Many of the Hospital's departments were built on parts of the former London Hospital Estate. Notable hospital buildings on the Estate included the Out Patients Department, designed by Rowland Plumbe and opened in 1902 and the Dental Institute, opened in 1965 and closed in 2014. The new Royal London Hospital building, designed by HOK Architects, was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 2013. The London Hospital had been granted Royal title by HM Queen Elizabeth II in 1990 to celebrate the 250th anniversary of its opening on the Whitechapel site, allowing it to be known as The Royal London Hospital.
Management of the Charity was originally in the hands of all the subscribers but, as they increased in numbers, this became impracticable. As early as April 1741 a Grand Committee was appointed to meet weekly, to transact the general business of the Hospital; this Committee developed into the House Committee, which exercised effective control, until its abolition in 1948. The subscriber's meetings became the Court of Governors, which normally met quarterly, and to which the House Committee reported. In 1758 the Hospital was granted a Royal Charter, which gave the Governors corporate status. Under the terms of the National Health Act, 1946, the Court of Governors and the House Committee were replaced by a Board of Governors in 1948. This Board was itself dissolved in 1974, when the Hospital became a part of the Tower Hamlets Health District in the City and East London Health Authority (Teaching).
Executive authority was at first split between several officers: the Secretary, the Steward, the Apothecary and the Chaplain; all exercised varying degrees of authority at different times. In 1806 a Superintendent was appointed and thereafter this officer, later called the House Governor, was the principal Executive Officer.
The original object of the Hospital was the "The relief of all sick and diseased persons and, in particular, manufacturers, seamen in the merchant service and their wives and children". The London Hospital has always been a general one and, by the end of the nineteenth century, was the largest voluntary, general Hospital in the United Kingdom. In the early years of the 20th Century the number of beds passed 1,000 on several occasions. In 2014 the new hospital provided 611 beds.
From the 1740's pupils had been taken on by members of the medical staff to "Walk the wards". In 1783 William Blizard and Dr. James Maddocks sought the Governors' support for the erection of a Lecture Theatre, so that both practical and theoretical education could be received on the same site. As a result a Lecture Theatre, which later developed into the Medical College, was opened in 1785. Until 1854 it remained largely independent of the Hospital but, from then until 1948, the Hospital House Committee exercised ultimate authority over the College. The College's records are kept by the College and are not included in these lists.
For many years the London Hospital had a number of Annexes and Convalescent Homes associated with it. At various times the Hospital managed the Zachary Merton Home, Banstead; the Brentwood Annexe; the Herman de Stern Home, Felixstowe; the Catherine Gladstone Home, Mitcham; the Croft and Fairfield Annexes in Reigate and the Hore and Marie Celeste Homes in Woodford. There was also Hayes Grove, a Home for Sick Nurses.
From 1945 until 1972 Queen Mary's Maternity Home, Hampstead, was managed by the Hospital. Its records are in the Royal London Hospital Archives, but are listed separately.
In 1968 Mile End and St. Clement's Hospitals were transferred to the management of the Board of Governors and were designated to the London Hospital (Mile End) and the London Hospital (St. Clement's). Some records of both these Hospitals are in the Royal London Hospital Archives, but are listed separately.
The "Marie Celeste" Samaritan Society was founded in 1791 to provide for London Hospital patients various welfare benefits, such as artificial limbs, periods of convalescence or special diets, which were beyond the resources of the Hospital. The records of this Society are in the Royal London Hospital Archives, but are listed separately.
The London Jewish Hospital was first planned in 1907 and opened in 1919. It was extended in 1926 and 1927, and in 1928 had 92 beds. In 1948 it ceased to be a Voluntary Hospital and became part of the National Health Service as a general hospital of 130 beds. From 1948 to 1966 it was managed by the Stepney Group Hospital Management Committee, and from 1966 to 1974 by the East London Group. The London Jewish Hospital was closed in 1979. Records survived the destruction of the office by a bomb during the Second World War.
The origins of the London Hospital Medical Council date from 1831, when the medical practitioners teaching in the Medical College formed themselves into an association of "Lecturers on and Teachers of Medicine, Surgery and Anatomy and other Sciences connected therewith at the Theatre attached to the London Hospital". The deed of covenant which created the body also set out basic rules for the Association and the ownership of the college museum. Records of the Association from 1831 to 1846 are lost, although some information from the minutes is recorded in a notebook by James Luke.
The Association became the Medical Council of the London Hospital School in 1847, and membership was extended to include the assistant physicians and surgeons. The old Medical College premises were now proving inadequate and in 1854 the Governors of the Hospital agreed to erect a new building. In the resultant administrative changes, the medical and surgical officers of the Hospital took over the management of the College from the Medical Council, as the London Hospital College Council. In practice, the Medical Council and the College Council consisted of the same people.
The management of the College was in the hands of the College Council (called, by 1868, the Medical Council of the London Hospital School) from 1855 to 1876, and the Medical Council continued to be heavily involved with the affairs of the college. In 1876 the Medical Council and the Board of Governors jointly established a College Board, comprising members of the House Committee and Medical Council. The Medical Council became less involved with the Medical College's affairs, and transferred its executive functions to the College Board. In 1888 membership of the Council comprised the physicians and surgeons of the hospital and lecturers at the Medical College of two years standing. In 1901 membership of the Council was extended, making it the sole channel through which views of the medical staff were expressed. The principal role of the Council was to advise the governors and the House Committee on all matters which affected the medical staff.
The Council had the power to create committees for particular purposes, but from 1960 its committee structure consisted of a Medical Committee and a Surgical Committee, and a Standing Committee to which they reported. In the late 1960s, the Medical Council's Medical and Surgical Committees were replaced by Divisions. Between 1969 and 1978 further divisions of Anaesthesia, Dentistry, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Pathology and Radiography (later Medical Imaging), Scientific and Technical Services and Paramedical Services were created. In 1971 the Standing Committee was abolished and replaced by the Final Medical Committee, which acted as the medium for transmitting advice between the Board of Governors (later District Management Team) and the consultant medical and dental staff. In 1974 the scope of the council was extended to include the whole of the new Tower Hamlets Health District, becoming the Medical Council of the London and Tower Hamlets Hospitals.
The Dental Council developed from the Dental School Committee, which was formed in 1911 to manage the Dental School. The Dental Council became known as the London Hospital Dental Board from 1913 to 1921, and from 1922 onwards the Dental Council. In 1974 the Council became the Division of Dentistry, reporting to the Final Medical Committee.
The League of Nurses was founded in 1931 by Beatrice Monk, Matron of the London Hospital from 1919 to 1931. The league was established to form a bond between present and former members of the nursing staff at the London Hospital. Membership was initially open to holders of the hospital's training certificate, plus staff nurses elected by the league's executive. This was later widened to include qualified nurses, midwives or health visitors who had worked in Tower Hamlets District for one year, and former members of the Mile End League of Nurses, with which it amalgamated in 1970. A benevolent fund was established in 1945, and the league continues to help serve the professional, personal and social needs of members.
The Royal London Hospital and Associated Community Services formed one of the first NHS Trusts. In 1991 the Health Service split health services management between 'purchasers' and 'providers'. The RLH Trust was the provider for Tower Hamlets District Health Authority, (later East London and The City District Health Authority from 1993), which purchased services to be carried out in NHS organisations such as hospitals and mental health services. The Royal London Hospital along with St Clement's and Mile End Hospitals formed the Trust as well as other community health services. The Trust was replaced by the Royal Hospitals NHS Trust which incorporated St Bartholomew's Hospital and The London Chest Hospital from 1994.
The London Hospital Medical College was established by the efforts of William Blizard and Dr James Maddocks, who in 1783 proposed to the Hospital House Committee that a proper medical school should be established in connection with the London Hospital. At this time, the training of a physician or surgeon consisted of two elements; the practical, which meant "walking the wards" of a hospital, as the pupil of a member of the staff, and the theoretical, which consisted of lectures on a number of subjects. Lectures were normally given by individual physicians or surgeons, either in their own premises, or in private medical schools. The Medical College was to enable students to receive practical and theoretical training at the same place, organised along the lines of a University. The Committee allowed Blizard and Maddocks a piece of land at the east end of the hospital on which to build a lecture theatre and museum. The Hospital made no financial contribution, as the Committee did not feel that medical education should be funded by hospital finances, nor would it allow the lecturers' private pupils into the wards. The new building was opened in October 1785.
From its opening in 1785 until 1831, the College appears to have been run by the physicians and surgeons in an informal manner, probably largely under the influence of Blizard. In 1831 the medical practitioners teaching in the College formed themselves into an association of "Lecturers and Teachers of Medicine, Surgery and Anatomy and other Sciences connected therewith at the Theatre attached to the London Hospital", which became the Medical Council of the London Hospital School in 1847. The old premises were now proving inadequate and in 1854 the Hospital Governors agreed to erect a new college building. The building housed two large lecture theatres, two museums, a library, dissecting room and two smaller lecture rooms. In the resultant administrative changes, the Medical and Surgical Officers of the Hospital took over the management of the College from the Medical Council, as the London Hospital College Council. In practice, the Medical Council and the College Council consisted of the same people. The management of the College was in the hands of the College Council (called, by 1868, the Medical Council of the London Hospital School) from 1855 to 1876. In 1876, after several years of negotiation, the House Committee of the Hospital took a hand in the administration and regular financial support of the College. Management was given over to a College Board consisting of nine members of the House Committee and six of the Medical Council. In 1879, at the end of a three year trial period and further negotiation, a new College Board was formed, consisting of six members from the House Committee and six from the Medical Council. In 1900 the College became a School of the University of London, although this change made no real difference to its administrative arrangements.
The Dental School of the London Hospital Medical College opened in 1911 to provide specialised treatment to patients and training and research opportunities. Surgeon Dentists had been appointed by the Hospital from 1857, and a Dental Department established. William Wright, Dean of the Medical College, was instrumental in the founding of the Dental School supported by the Dental Surgeon to the Hospital, Francis Farmer. It was managed by the Dental Council, which developed from the Dental School Committee formed in 1911. The Dental Council became known as the London Hospital Dental Board from 1913 to 1921, and from 1922 onwards the Dental Council. The Dental Education Committee was established by resolution of the College Board in March 1945. Originally accommodated in the Hospital's Out-Patients Department, the Dental School moved to new premises in Stepney Way in 1965.
With the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948, the College Board was abolished. The overall management of the Medical College passed to a Council of Governors and its standing Committee which was, in effect, the continuation of the Finance Committee of the College Board. Education matters were the concern of the Academic Board. In 1989 the pre-clinical teaching of the London Hospital Medical College merged with that of St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School as the Central and East London Confederation (CELC). It was re-sited at the Basic Medical Sciences Building at Queen Mary & Westfield College, Mile End. The Hospital was granted a royal title in 1990 and the College became known as the Royal London Hospital Medical College. Following the recommendations of the Tomlinson Report (1992) and the governmental response to it (Making London Better, 1993), the medical colleges of the Royal London and St Bartholomew's hospitals were united with Queen Mary & Westfield College, in December 1995. The resulting institution became known as St Bartholomew's and the Royal London School of Medicine & Dentistry.
Mile End Hospital has it's origins in a workhouse built by the Board of Guardians of Mile End Old Town, London, on the Bancroft Road site in 1858-1859. A new Infirmary, erected under the powers conferred by the Metropolitan Poor Act, 1867, was opened in March 1883, and a Nurse Training School was established in 1892. The institution was taken over by the military authorities during the First World War and the facilities of the Hospital were considerably improved. In 1930, when the Hospital passed to the control of the London County Council, it had 550 beds. Between 1942 and 1948 Mile End Hospital hosted a Regional Preliminary Training School for Nurses giving initial training to pupils who trained at London County Council hospitals in all parts of London.
With the introduction of National Health Service in 1948, the Hospital became part of the Stepney Group of Hospitals. The Stepney Group Hospital Management Committee merged with the Central Group in 1966 to form the East London Group. In 1968, Mile End Hospital, together with St Clement's Hospital, was transferred to the management of the Board of Governors of the London Hospital. Its designation was changed to the London Hospital (Mile End). As a result of the re-organisation in 1974, it became part of Tower Hamlets Health District. In 1990, as part of the London Hospital Group, the Hospital was granted a Royal title, becoming The Royal London Hospital (Mile End). On the closure of Bethnal Green Hospital in June 1990, the Bancroft Unit for the Care of the Elderly opened at Mile End.
The Hospital was part of The Royal London Hospital and its Associated Community Services NHS Trust from 1991 to 1994. Following the recommendations of the government report "Making London Better" (1993), it was transferred to City and East London Family and Community Services (CELFACS), reverting to the name "Mile End Hospital". On the division of CELFACS in 1994 the Hospital came under the management of Tower Hamlets Community Health Services NHS Trust with The Royal Hospitals NHS Trust continuing to occupy two wards at Mile End until 1997. Tower Hamlets Community Health Services NHS Trust was reconfigured in 2001 as Tower Hamlets Primary Care Trust. The Trust was discontinued in 2013 and Mile End Hospital was incorporated into the newly formed Barts Health NHS Trust.
The Medical Club has its origins in the series of anniversary dinners of gentlemen educated at the London Hospital, which began in 1792. The dinners have been held regularly, except in wartime, ever since.
The Club was formally established in 1838 when it was agreed that membership be given to former students paying the annual subscription of 2 guineas, later reduced to 25 shillings. The Club's affairs were run by a committee, later succeeded by a smaller Executive Council. Between 1867 and 1887 Biennial Festivals of the London Hospital Medical College were held, and club dinners given on alternate years. In 1881 a benevolent fund was started for the relief of widows and orphans of alumni, to fund entrance scholarships for the Medical College. An employment agency, originally run unofficially by the Surgeon's Beadle, was adopted by the Club in about 1905. It provided locums and assistants for Old Londoners in general practice.
In the 1970s the Club took over the anniversary dinner, which had for many years been organised by the Hospital's Medical Council. The Medical Club also relaunched The London Hospital Gazette in 1975, in association with the Dental Club. The Club was active in several appeals, including the Medical College Bicentenary Appeal. In 2000 the London Hospital Medical Club merged with the London Hospital Dental Club and Barts Alumni Association, to form the Barts and The London Alumni Association.
The Mildmay Mission Hospital has its origins in the work of The Rev. William Pennefather and his team of Christian women, later known as Deaconesses, who began their work of visiting the sick of the East End during the Cholera outbreak of 1866.
The Mildmay Medical Mission was opened in 1877 by William's widow Catherine Pennefather and eleven other women, in a converted warehouse behind Shoreditch Church, in Turville Square/Cabbage Court in the Old Nichol slums. Dedicated to the memory of William, who had died in 1873, it consisted of twenty-seven beds in three wards, one doctor, three nurses and five deaconesses in training. The Hospital was recognised for the training of nurses in 1883. Although the hospital did not require letters of admission, like many other voluntary hospitals of the time, and it did not discriminate by religion, throughout its existence the Mildmay stressed its role as an evalgelical Christian centre as well as a General Hospital; prayers were held on the wards, and biblical quotations were painted on the walls. Staff regarded their work as a religious as well as a medical vocation. Despite this, the hospital had a strong tradition for treating Jewish immigrants to the East End.
The slum clearances carried out by the London County Council in the 1880s and 1890s threatened the original site, and in 1890, a foundation stone was laid for a purpose-built hospital at Austin Street and Hackney Road. In 1892 the new Mildmay Mission Hospital opened, with 50 beds in 3 wards; male, female and children's. (The Mildmay Mission itself was based from c.1870s-1950s at Central Hall, Philpot Street, close to the Royal London Hospital).
In 1948 the hospital was incorporated into the National Health Service as part of the North East Metropolitan Regional Board's Central (No. 5) Group of Hospitals and transferred in 1966 to the East London Group. In 1974 it became part of the Tower Hamlets Health District. As a hospital with less that 200 beds the hospital was regarded as uneconomic and was closed down in 1982.
In 1985, the hospital was reopened outside the NHS as a charitable nursing home, with a GP surgery attached and caring for young chronically sick patients; in 1988, it became Europe's first hospice caring for people with HIV/AIDS and their families, acquiring a worldwide reputation. It was famously visited by Princess Diana in 1991. In 2013 a new, bigger purpose built hospice was opened, which still maintains outreach work across the world.
Newham Health District existed from 1974 to 1981, as one of three districts within the City and East London Area Health Authority (Teaching). During this period the development of Newham General Hospital was planned and a number of joint consultative appointments made, mostly with the London Hospital Medical College.
Newham District Health Authority was established in 1981. Until the National Health Service reorganisation in 1991 the Authority was responsible for running hospital and other health services in Newham. In 1991 the District became the purchasing authority for health services for the population for Newham, with provider services contracted principally with Newham Healthcare, based at Newham General Hospital. In 1993 Newham District Health Authority merged with City and Hackney District Health Authority and Tower Hamlets District Health Authority to form the East London and City Health Authority.
Poplar Hospital was founded in 1855 to provide for the many accidental injuries occurring in the Docks, and was officially called the Poplar Hospital for Accidents. Many of those prominent in the foundation, such as Samuel Gurney and Money Wigram, were actively connected with the London Hospital and, in 1854, it was suggested that the proposed hospital should be attached to the London. This suggestion was again revived in 1868 but to no effect. Sydney Holland, later 2nd Viscount Knutsford, became Chairman of the Hospital in 1891 and President in 1920. The Hospital was rebuilt between 1891 and 1894, and women's wards were provided for the first time. With the advent of the National Health Service in 1948, the Hospital became part of the Bow Group of Hospitals within the North East Metropolitan Board. In 1963 the Group was amalgamated with another to form the Thames Group. Poplar Hospital closed in 1974.
The London Hospital Pathological Institute was built in 1901 as the Sir Andrew Clarke memorial. The first Director of the London Hospital Pathological Institute was Redcliffe Nathan Salaman (1874-1955), from 1904 to 1906. He was succeeded by Hubert Maitland Turnbull (1875-1955), Director of the Institute from 1906 to 1946. Post-mortem examinations, previously performed by one of four Physicians, were henceforth conducted either by Turnbull himself, or by one of his Assistants. The whole body was dissected, and exact measurements and specimens taken for microscopic examination.
In March 1909 the Institute initiated a Surgical Department, in which material from operating theatres and the Out-Patient Department was examined. In 1919 Dr Turnbull was awarded the title of Professor of Morbid Anatomy in the University of London. In 1927 the Institute was enlarged and opened by Regius Professor Sir Humphrey Rolleston as the "Bernhard Baron" Institute. Turnbull's successor was Professor Dorothy Stuart Russell (1895-1983), who was Director until 1960. From the 1960s onwards the Institute kept records for autopsies and histological examinations carried out for other hospitals: Bethnal Green, Mile End, London Chest Hospital and St. Andrew's Hospital. The Institute opened a Cytology Department for analysis of body fluids under Christopher Brown in 1966. After 1990 the Institute was known as The Royal London Hospital Pathological Institute. The Institute conducted post mortem and surgical department examinations for Bethnal Green and Mile End Hospitals from 1969 to 1978.
This hospital originated from the West Ham Board of Guardians Smallpox Hospital, which was established in Western Road , Plaistow in 1871, the Poplar Board of Works Infectious Diseases Hospital, which opened in Samson Street in 1878 and the Smallpox Hospital established in Pragel Street by West Ham Local Board in 1884. The Pragel Street premises closed in 1894 when the Samson Street premises were purchased by West Ham Borough Council and in the following year the Council likewise purchased the Smallpox Hospital at Western Road. Through the closure of part of Western Road, a large island site was made available for the development of a new Infectious Diseases Hospital, which opened in 1901 with accommodation for 210 patients as Plaistow Fever Hospital.
The new Hospital was considered to be one of the most modern of its kind and originated the barrier method of nursing infectious cases. Training of probationer nurses had commenced in 1898. In 1906 the Hospital was recognised by several universities and the royal college for the training of medical students in infectious diseases and over the next 37 years over 3000 students received fever training at Plaistow. The Hospital was damaged by bombing during World War II and in 1947 the older Samson Street buildings were made available for Queen Mary's Hospital, Stratford, as a medical in-patient department. The name of the Hospital was changed to Plaistow Hospital in 1948 in recognition of the fact that it was available for acute medical cases as well as infectious cases. In 1982 chest medicine beds were transferred to St. Andrew's Hospital by Newham Health Authority and from 1983 the hospital began to specialise in elderly long stay patients with such patients from Newham transferring from Langthorne Hospital, Leyton to Plaistow. A dementia assessment unit was opened in 1987and in 1990 Plaistow day Hospital was upgraded and extended to provide 40 places for elderly people. Management of the hospital transferred from East London & The City Health Authority to Newham Community Health Services NHS Trust in 1995. It closed in 2006 when the patients from the Frail Elders Services were transferred to the newly opened, purpose-built East Ham Care Centre, behind the East Ham Memorial Hospital in Shrewsbury Road. The patients had occupied just half the site of the Plaistow Hospital and it was felt it was no longer economically viable to keep the remaining staff on site.