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Highgate Petty Sessional Division: In October 1890 a new petty sessional division was formed out of that part of the old Finsbury Petty Sessional Division falling within the new administrative county of Middlesex. This new division included the parishes of Hornsey, Finchley, and Friern Barnet. It was given the name Highgate Petty Sessional Division. The name was taken from the village of Highgate, part of which was in Hornsey parish. The justices of the old Finsbury Division had had a meeting place in Highgate from at least 1879 and the new division continued to be based there.

History: An Act of 1792 established seven 'Public Offices' (later Police offices and Police courts) in the central Metropolitan area. The aim was to establish fixed locations where 'fit and able magistrates' would attend at fixed times to deal with an increasing number of criminal offences.

Offices were opened in St Margaret Westminster, St James Westminster, Clerkenwell, Shoreditch, Whitechapel, Shadwell and Southwark. An office in Bow Street, Covent Garden, originally the home of the local magistrate, had been operating for almost 50 years and was largely the model for the new offices.

In 1800 the Marine Police Office or Thames Police Office, opened by 'private enterprise' in 1798, was incorporated into the statutory system. In 1821 an office was opened in Marylebone, apparently replacing the one in Shadwell.

Each office was assigned three Justices of the Peace. They were to receive a salary of £400 per annum. These were the first stipendiary magistrates. Later they were expected to be highly qualified in the law, indeed, to be experienced barristers. This distinguished them from the local lay justices who after the setting up of Police Offices were largely confined, in the Metropolitan area, to the licensing of innkeepers. In addition each office could appoint up to six constables to be attached to it.

The commonly used term of 'Police Court' was found to be misleading. The word 'police' gave the impression that the Metropolitan Police controlled and administered the courts. This was never the case, the word 'police' was being used in its original meaning of 'pertaining to civil administration', 'regulating', etc.

In April 1965 (following the Administration of Justice Act 1964) the London Police Courts with their stipendiary magistrates were integrated with the lay magistrates to form the modern Inner London Magistrates' Courts.

The police courts dealt with a wide range of business coming under the general heading of 'summary jurisdiction', i.e. trial without a jury. The cases heard were largely criminal and of the less serious kind. Over the years statutes created many offences that the courts could deal with in addition to Common Law offences. Examples include: drunk and disorderly conduct, assault, theft, begging, possessing stolen goods, cruelty to animals, desertion from the armed forces, betting, soliciting, loitering with intent, obstructing highways, and motoring offences. Non-criminal matters included small debts concerning income tax and local rates, landlord and tenant matters, matrimonial problems and bastardy.

Offences beyond the powers of the Court would normally be passed to the Sessions of the Peace or Gaol Delivery Sessions in the Old Bailey (from 1835 called the Central Criminal Court). From the late 19th century such cases would be the subject of preliminary hearings or committal proceedings in the magistrates' courts.

Outside the London Police Court Area but within the administrative county of Middlesex lay justices continued to deal with both criminal offences and administrative matters such as the licensing of innkeepers.

The exact area covered by a Court at any particular time can be found in the Kelly's Post Office London Directories, available on microfilm at LMA. The entries are based on the original Orders-in-Council establishing police court districts. A map showing police court districts is kept in the Information Area of LMA with other reference maps. Please ask a member of staff for assistance.

Horseferry Road Magistrates' Court: Horseferry Road Magistrates' Court opened in 1974 in response to the demand for more courtrooms in London. It joined Bow Street and Marlborough Street Magistrates' Courts as part of the South Westminster Petty Sessions Division of the Inner London Magistrates' Court Service.

Horseferry Road opened with four courtrooms to which two more were added in the early 1980s. Originally named after Horseferry Road where the court is sited, it was renamed The City of Westminster Magistrates' Court in July 2006 after the closure of Bow Street.

History of magistrates courts: An Act of 1792 established seven 'Public Offices' (later Police offices and Police courts) in the central Metropolitan area. The aim was to establish fixed locations where 'fit and able magistrates' would attend at fixed times to deal with an increasing number of criminal offences.

Offices were opened in St Margaret Westminster, St James Westminster, Clerkenwell, Shoreditch, Whitechapel, Shadwell and Southwark. An office in Bow Street, Covent Garden, originally the home of the local magistrate, had been operating for almost 50 years and was largely the model for the new offices.

In 1800 the Marine Police Office or Thames Police Office, opened by 'private enterprise' in 1798, was incorporated into the statutory system. In 1821 an office was opened in Marylebone, apparently replacing the one in Shadwell.

Each office was assigned three Justices of the Peace. They were to receive a salary of £400 per annum. These were the first stipendiary magistrates. Later they were expected to be highly qualified in the law, indeed, to be experienced barristers. This distinguished them from the local lay justices who after the setting up of Police Offices were largely confined, in the Metropolitan area, to the licensing of innkeepers. In addition each office could appoint up to six constables to be attached to it.

The commonly used term of 'Police Court' was found to be misleading. The word 'police' gave the impression that the Metropolitan Police controlled and administered the courts. This was never the case, the word 'police' was being used in its original meaning of 'pertaining to civil administration', 'regulating', etc.

In April 1965 (following the Administration of Justice Act 1964) the London Police Courts with their stipendiary magistrates were integrated with the lay magistrates to form the modern Inner London Magistrates' Courts.

The police courts dealt with a wide range of business coming under the general heading of 'summary jurisdiction', i.e. trial without a jury. The cases heard were largely criminal and of the less serious kind. Over the years statutes created many offences that the courts could deal with in addition to Common Law offences. Examples include: drunk and disorderly conduct, assault, theft, begging, possessing stolen goods, cruelty to animals, desertion from the armed forces, betting, soliciting, loitering with intent, obstructing highways, and motoring offences. Non-criminal matters included small debts concerning income tax and local rates, landlord and tenant matters, matrimonial problems and bastardy.

Offences beyond the powers of the Court would normally be passed to the Sessions of the Peace or Gaol Delivery Sessions in the Old Bailey (from 1835 called the Central Criminal Court). From the late 19th century such cases would be the subject of preliminary hearings or committal proceedings in the magistrates' courts.

Outside the London Police Court Area but within the administrative county of Middlesex lay justices continued to deal with both criminal offences and administrative matters such as the licensing of innkeepers.

The exact area covered by a Court at any particular time can be found in the Kelly's Post Office London Directories, available on microfilm at LMA. The entries are based on the original Orders-in-Council establishing police court districts. A map showing police court districts is kept in the Information Area of LMA with other reference maps. Please ask a member of staff for assistance.

Before the 1840s children received the same treatment in the courts as adults. Changes began tentatively in 1847, when the Juvenile Offenders Act permitted children not over the age of 14 and charged with simple larceny, to be tried and sentenced by two lay justices of the peace or one stipendiary magistrate. This was an alternative to the usual full court hearing by indictment before a jury (see MSJ/CY series in the Middlesex Sessions records).

The Summary Jurisdiction Act 1879 enlarged the provisions of the 1847 Act. Offenders under the age of 16 could be tried summarily for nearly all indictable offences. This reduced the number of juveniles in prison and simplified the trial process. However, juveniles still had to mix with adult defendants and prisoners.

The 1908 Children Act at last established separate juvenile courts. Cases concerning persons under 16 were to be heard in a separate room or building and at separate times from adult cases. The Act authorised the establishment by Order-in-Council of separate juvenile courts for the Metropolitan Police District.

An Order-in-Council, 2 December 1909, established six juvenile courts to cover the then fourteen police court districts. These courts were: Bow Street, Clerkenwell, Tower Bridge, Westminster, Old Street, and Greenwich. These courts were presided over by a Metropolitan stipendiary magistrate sitting alone.

From 1920, under the Juvenile Courts (Metropolis) Act, the Metropolitan Magistrate was to be joined by two lay justices (one to be a woman) drawn from a panel nominated by the Home Secretary. From the mid-1930s the juvenile courts became largely the preserve of lay justices.

In the early 1930s all the Metropolitan juvenile courts were administered from Bow Street. A Chief Clerk was subsequently appointed to deal solely with juvenile courts and was given full-time staff. This centralised administration still continues.

The original six courts, after 1909, changed names and location several times and were gradually increased. These changes can be traced in the Post Office Directories in the History Library.

Under the Administration of Justice Act 1964 and the London Government Act 1963 a unified system of magistrates' courts for Inner London was established, of which the juvenile courts formed part. At least one juvenile court was established for each of the new London Boroughs.

North London Magistrate's Court was based at 82 Stoke Newington Road, N16.

An Act of 1792 established seven 'Public Offices' (later Police offices and Police courts) in the central Metropolitan area. The aim was to establish fixed locations where 'fit and able magistrates' would attend at fixed times to deal with an increasing number of criminal offences.

Offices were opened in St Margaret Westminster, St James Westminster, Clerkenwell, Shoreditch, Whitechapel, Shadwell and Southwark. An office in Bow Street, Covent Garden, originally the home of the local magistrate, had been operating for almost 50 years and was largely the model for the new offices.

In 1800 the Marine Police Office or Thames Police Office, opened by 'private enterprise' in 1798, was incorporated into the statutory system. In 1821 an office was opened in Marylebone, apparently replacing the one in Shadwell.

Each office was assigned three Justices of the Peace. They were to receive a salary of £400 per annum. These were the first stipendiary magistrates. Later they were expected to be highly qualified in the law, indeed, to be experienced barristers. This distinguished them from the local lay justices who after the setting up of Police Offices were largely confined, in the Metropolitan area, to the licensing of innkeepers. In addition each office could appoint up to six constables to be attached to it.

The commonly used term of 'Police Court' was found to be misleading. The word 'police' gave the impression that the Metropolitan Police controlled and administered the courts. This was never the case, the word 'police' was being used in its original meaning of 'pertaining to civil administration', 'regulating', etc.

In April 1965 (following the Administration of Justice Act 1964) the London Police Courts with their stipendiary magistrates were integrated with the lay magistrates to form the modern Inner London Magistrates' Courts.

The police courts dealt with a wide range of business coming under the general heading of 'summary jurisdiction', i.e. trial without a jury. The cases heard were largely criminal and of the less serious kind. Over the years statutes created many offences that the courts could deal with in addition to Common Law offences. Examples include: drunk and disorderly conduct, assault, theft, begging, possessing stolen goods, cruelty to animals, desertion from the armed forces, betting, soliciting, loitering with intent, obstructing highways, and motoring offences. Non-criminal matters included small debts concerning income tax and local rates, landlord and tenant matters, matrimonial problems and bastardy.

Offences beyond the powers of the Court would normally be passed to the Sessions of the Peace or Gaol Delivery Sessions in the Old Bailey (from 1835 called the Central Criminal Court). From the late 19th century such cases would be the subject of preliminary hearings or committal proceedings in the magistrates' courts.

Outside the London Police Court Area but within the administrative county of Middlesex lay justices continued to deal with both criminal offences and administrative matters such as the licensing of innkeepers.

The exact area covered by a Court at any particular time can be found in the Kelly's Post Office London Directories, available on microfilm at LMA. The entries are based on the original Orders-in-Council establishing police court districts. A map showing police court districts is kept in the Information Area of LMA with other reference maps. Please ask a member of staff for assistance.

Saint Pancras Petty Sessional Division: The parish of St Pancras (including most of Highgate) fell within the division of Holborn of Ossulston Hundred. Some time during the first quarter of the 19th century, St Pancras Justices of the Peace met together in unofficial sessions particularly for licensing purposes, separately from the full division. St Pancras became a fully autonomous petty sessional division by order of the Middlesex Sessions in 1853. On 1 July 1956 the St Pancras Division was incorporated into the New River Division.

An Act of 1792 established seven 'Public Offices' (later Police offices and Police courts) in the central Metropolitan area. The aim was to establish fixed locations where 'fit and able magistrates' would attend at fixed times to deal with an increasing number of criminal offences.

Offices were opened in St Margaret Westminster, St James Westminster, Clerkenwell, Shoreditch, Whitechapel, Shadwell and Southwark. An office in Bow Street, Covent Garden, originally the home of the local magistrate, had been operating for almost 50 years and was largely the model for the new offices.

In 1800 the Marine Police Office or Thames Police Office, opened by 'private enterprise' in 1798, was incorporated into the statutory system. In 1821 an office was opened in Marylebone, apparently replacing the one in Shadwell.

Each office was assigned three Justices of the Peace. They were to receive a salary of £400 per annum. These were the first stipendiary magistrates. Later they were expected to be highly qualified in the law, indeed, to be experienced barristers. This distinguished them from the local lay justices who after the setting up of Police Offices were largely confined, in the Metropolitan area, to the licensing of innkeepers. In addition each office could appoint up to six constables to be attached to it.

The commonly used term of 'Police Court' was found to be misleading. The word 'police' gave the impression that the Metropolitan Police controlled and administered the courts. This was never the case, the word 'police' was being used in its original meaning of 'pertaining to civil administration', 'regulating', etc.

In April 1965 (following the Administration of Justice Act 1964) the London Police Courts with their stipendiary magistrates were integrated with the lay magistrates to form the modern Inner London Magistrates' Courts.

The police courts dealt with a wide range of business coming under the general heading of 'summary jurisdiction', i.e. trial without a jury. The cases heard were largely criminal and of the less serious kind. Over the years statutes created many offences that the courts could deal with in addition to Common Law offences. Examples include: drunk and disorderly conduct, assault, theft, begging, possessing stolen goods, cruelty to animals, desertion from the armed forces, betting, soliciting, loitering with intent, obstructing highways, and motoring offences. Non-criminal matters included small debts concerning income tax and local rates, landlord and tenant matters, matrimonial problems and bastardy.

Offences beyond the powers of the Court would normally be passed to the Sessions of the Peace or Gaol Delivery Sessions in the Old Bailey (from 1835 called the Central Criminal Court). From the late 19th century such cases would be the subject of preliminary hearings or committal proceedings in the magistrates' courts.

Outside the London Police Court Area but within the administrative county of Middlesex lay justices continued to deal with both criminal offences and administrative matters such as the licensing of innkeepers.

The exact area covered by a Court at any particular time can be found in the Kelly's Post Office London Directories, available on microfilm at LMA. The entries are based on the original Orders-in-Council establishing police court districts. A map showing police court districts is kept in the Information Area of LMA with other reference maps. Please ask a member of staff for assistance.

Thames Magistrates Court:
Thames Police Court was in origin the Marine Police Office or Thames Police Office opened at the instigation of merchants and dock owners and Patrick Colquhoun in 1798, and regularised by Act of Parliament in 1800. It was probably amalgamated with the Police Office in High Street Shadwell in 1839/40 and with the Lambeth Street, Whitechapel, Police District in 1845. In 1841 it was situated at 255 Wapping High Street. In 1844 it moved to Arbour Street, Stepney, where it remained, undergoing changes of address because of street-name changes: 1922-1939 Charles Street and 1939 onwards Aylward Street, Stepney.

History of magistrates courts:
An Act of 1792 established seven 'Public Offices' (later Police offices and Police courts) in the central Metropolitan area. The aim was to establish fixed locations where 'fit and able magistrates' would attend at fixed times to deal with an increasing number of criminal offences.

Offices were opened in St Margaret Westminster, St James Westminster, Clerkenwell, Shoreditch, Whitechapel, Shadwell and Southwark. An office in Bow Street, Covent Garden, originally the home of the local magistrate, had been operating for almost 50 years and was largely the model for the new offices.

In 1800 the Marine Police Office or Thames Police Office, opened by 'private enterprise' in 1798, was incorporated into the statutory system. In 1821 an office was opened in Marylebone, apparently replacing the one in Shadwell.

Each office was assigned three Justices of the Peace. They were to receive a salary of £400 per annum. These were the first stipendiary magistrates. Later they were expected to be highly qualified in the law, indeed, to be experienced barristers. This distinguished them from the local lay justices who after the setting up of Police Offices were largely confined, in the Metropolitan area, to the licensing of innkeepers. In addition each office could appoint up to six constables to be attached to it.

The commonly used term of 'Police Court' was found to be misleading. The word 'police' gave the impression that the Metropolitan Police controlled and administered the courts. This was never the case, the word 'police' was being used in its original meaning of 'pertaining to civil administration', 'regulating', etc.

In April 1965 (following the Administration of Justice Act 1964) the London Police Courts with their stipendiary magistrates were integrated with the lay magistrates to form the modern Inner London Magistrates' Courts.

The police courts dealt with a wide range of business coming under the general heading of 'summary jurisdiction', i.e. trial without a jury. The cases heard were largely criminal and of the less serious kind. Over the years statutes created many offences that the courts could deal with in addition to Common Law offences. Examples include: drunk and disorderly conduct, assault, theft, begging, possessing stolen goods, cruelty to animals, desertion from the armed forces, betting, soliciting, loitering with intent, obstructing highways, and motoring offences. Non-criminal matters included small debts concerning income tax and local rates, landlord and tenant matters, matrimonial problems and bastardy.

Offences beyond the powers of the Court would normally be passed to the Sessions of the Peace or Gaol Delivery Sessions in the Old Bailey (from 1835 called the Central Criminal Court). From the late 19th century such cases would be the subject of preliminary hearings or committal proceedings in the magistrates' courts.

Outside the London Police Court Area but within the administrative county of Middlesex lay justices continued to deal with both criminal offences and administrative matters such as the licensing of innkeepers.

The exact area covered by a Court at any particular time can be found in the Kelly's Post Office London Directories, available on microfilm at LMA. The entries are based on the original Orders-in-Council establishing police court districts. A map showing police court districts is kept in the Information Area of LMA with other reference maps. Please ask a member of staff for assistance.

Tower Bridge Magistrates Court:
Under the 1792 Act a public office was opened in Union Hall, Union Street, Southwark, serving a district covering a large part of South London including Lambeth and Southwark. In 1845 the district was split and shared between two new courts, the Lambeth Police Court and Southwark Police Court. The latter was recorded as being in Blackman Street, Borough in 1845, and at 298 Borough High Street in 1892. The court moved in 1905 to Tooley Street and changed its name to Tower Bridge Police Court.

History of magistrates courts:
An Act of 1792 established seven 'Public Offices' (later Police offices and Police courts) in the central Metropolitan area. The aim was to establish fixed locations where 'fit and able magistrates' would attend at fixed times to deal with an increasing number of criminal offences.

Offices were opened in St Margaret Westminster, St James Westminster, Clerkenwell, Shoreditch, Whitechapel, Shadwell and Southwark. An office in Bow Street, Covent Garden, originally the home of the local magistrate, had been operating for almost 50 years and was largely the model for the new offices.

In 1800 the Marine Police Office or Thames Police Office, opened by 'private enterprise' in 1798, was incorporated into the statutory system. In 1821 an office was opened in Marylebone, apparently replacing the one in Shadwell.

Each office was assigned three Justices of the Peace. They were to receive a salary of £400 per annum. These were the first stipendiary magistrates. Later they were expected to be highly qualified in the law, indeed, to be experienced barristers. This distinguished them from the local lay justices who after the setting up of Police Offices were largely confined, in the Metropolitan area, to the licensing of innkeepers. In addition each office could appoint up to six constables to be attached to it.

The commonly used term of 'Police Court' was found to be misleading. The word 'police' gave the impression that the Metropolitan Police controlled and administered the courts. This was never the case, the word 'police' was being used in its original meaning of 'pertaining to civil administration', 'regulating', etc.

In April 1965 (following the Administration of Justice Act 1964) the London Police Courts with their stipendiary magistrates were integrated with the lay magistrates to form the modern Inner London Magistrates' Courts.

The police courts dealt with a wide range of business coming under the general heading of 'summary jurisdiction', i.e. trial without a jury. The cases heard were largely criminal and of the less serious kind. Over the years statutes created many offences that the courts could deal with in addition to Common Law offences. Examples include: drunk and disorderly conduct, assault, theft, begging, possessing stolen goods, cruelty to animals, desertion from the armed forces, betting, soliciting, loitering with intent, obstructing highways, and motoring offences. Non-criminal matters included small debts concerning income tax and local rates, landlord and tenant matters, matrimonial problems and bastardy.

Offences beyond the powers of the Court would normally be passed to the Sessions of the Peace or Gaol Delivery Sessions in the Old Bailey (from 1835 called the Central Criminal Court). From the late 19th century such cases would be the subject of preliminary hearings or committal proceedings in the magistrates' courts.

Outside the London Police Court Area but within the administrative county of Middlesex lay justices continued to deal with both criminal offences and administrative matters such as the licensing of innkeepers.

The exact area covered by a Court at any particular time can be found in the Kelly's Post Office London Directories, available on microfilm at LMA. The entries are based on the original Orders-in-Council establishing police court districts. A map showing police court districts is kept in the Information Area of LMA with other reference maps. Please ask a member of staff for assistance.

An Act of 1792 established seven 'Public Offices' (later Police offices and Police courts) in the central Metropolitan area. The aim was to establish fixed locations where 'fit and able magistrates' would attend at fixed times to deal with an increasing number of criminal offences.

Offices were opened in St Margaret Westminster, St James Westminster, Clerkenwell, Shoreditch, Whitechapel, Shadwell and Southwark. An office in Bow Street, Covent Garden, originally the home of the local magistrate, had been operating for almost 50 years and was largely the model for the new offices.

In 1800 the Marine Police Office or Thames Police Office, opened by 'private enterprise' in 1798, was incorporated into the statutory system. In 1821 an office was opened in Marylebone, apparently replacing the one in Shadwell.

Each office was assigned three Justices of the Peace. They were to receive a salary of £400 per annum. These were the first stipendiary magistrates. Later they were expected to be highly qualified in the law, indeed, to be experienced barristers. This distinguished them from the local lay justices who after the setting up of Police Offices were largely confined, in the Metropolitan area, to the licensing of innkeepers. In addition each office could appoint up to six constables to be attached to it.

The commonly used term of 'Police Court' was found to be misleading. The word 'police' gave the impression that the Metropolitan Police controlled and administered the courts. This was never the case, the word 'police' was being used in its original meaning of 'pertaining to civil administration', 'regulating', etc.

In April 1965 (following the Administration of Justice Act 1964) the London Police Courts with their stipendiary magistrates were integrated with the lay magistrates to form the modern Inner London Magistrates' Courts.

The police courts dealt with a wide range of business coming under the general heading of 'summary jurisdiction', i.e. trial without a jury. The cases heard were largely criminal and of the less serious kind. Over the years statutes created many offences that the courts could deal with in addition to Common Law offences. Examples include: drunk and disorderly conduct, assault, theft, begging, possessing stolen goods, cruelty to animals, desertion from the armed forces, betting, soliciting, loitering with intent, obstructing highways, and motoring offences. Non-criminal matters included small debts concerning income tax and local rates, landlord and tenant matters, matrimonial problems and bastardy.

Offences beyond the powers of the Court would normally be passed to the Sessions of the Peace or Gaol Delivery Sessions in the Old Bailey (from 1835 called the Central Criminal Court). From the late 19th century such cases would be the subject of preliminary hearings or committal proceedings in the magistrates' courts.

Outside the London Police Court Area but within the administrative county of Middlesex lay justices continued to deal with both criminal offences and administrative matters such as the licensing of innkeepers.

The exact area covered by a Court at any particular time can be found in the Kelly's Post Office London Directories, available on microfilm at LMA. The entries are based on the original Orders-in-Council establishing police court districts. A map showing police court districts is kept in the Information Area of LMA with other reference maps. Please ask a member of staff for assistance.

West London Magistrates Court:
This court was originally opened in Kensington (1 Church Court) in approximately 1841. It was known as the Kensington Police Court and administered jointly with Wandsworth Police Court. It was moved to Brook Green Lane, Hammersmith in 1843 and became known as the Hammersmith Police Court. In 1859 it moved to the junction of Vernon Street and Southcombe Street, West Kensington. In 1889 it was administratively separated from Wandsworth and became known as the West London Police Court.

In 1996 both the old West London and Walton Street Magistrates' Courts closed and their resources amalgamated to form the West London Magistrates Court now residing in Talgarth Road.

History of magistrates courts:
An Act of 1792 established seven 'Public Offices' (later Police offices and Police courts) in the central Metropolitan area. The aim was to establish fixed locations where 'fit and able magistrates' would attend at fixed times to deal with an increasing number of criminal offences.

Offices were opened in St Margaret Westminster, St James Westminster, Clerkenwell, Shoreditch, Whitechapel, Shadwell and Southwark. An office in Bow Street, Covent Garden, originally the home of the local magistrate, had been operating for almost 50 years and was largely the model for the new offices.

In 1800 the Marine Police Office or Thames Police Office, opened by 'private enterprise' in 1798, was incorporated into the statutory system. In 1821 an office was opened in Marylebone, apparently replacing the one in Shadwell.

Each office was assigned three Justices of the Peace. They were to receive a salary of £400 per annum. These were the first stipendiary magistrates. Later they were expected to be highly qualified in the law, indeed, to be experienced barristers. This distinguished them from the local lay justices who after the setting up of Police Offices were largely confined, in the Metropolitan area, to the licensing of innkeepers. In addition each office could appoint up to six constables to be attached to it.

The commonly used term of 'Police Court' was found to be misleading. The word 'police' gave the impression that the Metropolitan Police controlled and administered the courts. This was never the case, the word 'police' was being used in its original meaning of 'pertaining to civil administration', 'regulating', etc.

In April 1965 (following the Administration of Justice Act 1964) the London Police Courts with their stipendiary magistrates were integrated with the lay magistrates to form the modern Inner London Magistrates' Courts.

The police courts dealt with a wide range of business coming under the general heading of 'summary jurisdiction', i.e. trial without a jury. The cases heard were largely criminal and of the less serious kind. Over the years statutes created many offences that the courts could deal with in addition to Common Law offences. Examples include: drunk and disorderly conduct, assault, theft, begging, possessing stolen goods, cruelty to animals, desertion from the armed forces, betting, soliciting, loitering with intent, obstructing highways, and motoring offences. Non-criminal matters included small debts concerning income tax and local rates, landlord and tenant matters, matrimonial problems and bastardy.

Offences beyond the powers of the Court would normally be passed to the Sessions of the Peace or Gaol Delivery Sessions in the Old Bailey (from 1835 called the Central Criminal Court). From the late 19th century such cases would be the subject of preliminary hearings or committal proceedings in the magistrates' courts.

Outside the London Police Court Area but within the administrative county of Middlesex lay justices continued to deal with both criminal offences and administrative matters such as the licensing of innkeepers.

The exact area covered by a Court at any particular time can be found in the Kelly's Post Office London Directories, available on microfilm at LMA. The entries are based on the original Orders-in-Council establishing police court districts. A map showing police court districts is kept in the Information Area of LMA with other reference maps. Please ask a member of staff for assistance.

Cleopatra's Needle was made of pink granite at the time of Thothmes (Tuthmose) III, circa 1500 BC, with later inscriptions added by Ramesses II. It was later removed to Alexandria. It was brought to London in the container ship Cleopatra, towed by the steam ships Olga and Anglia, in 1877. It was erected on the Victoria Embankment between Hungerford Bridge and Waterloo Bridge by the engineer John Dixon in 1879, with two sphinxes added to the base.

Edward Walford was born in 1823. In 1848, after attending Oxford, he was ordained as a priest. He became a teacher and began writing textbooks. His writing soon expanded to include the compilation of annuals such as Hardwicke's Shilling Peerage and Country Families of Great Britain. In 1860 he moved to Hampstead and for the next 26 years lived there while writing and compiling biographical, topographical and antiquarian works; including 4 volumes of Old and New London. He died in 1897.

Information from: Robin Woolven, 'Walford, Edward (1823-1897)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.

The court of Quarter Sessions was the place in which the Justices of the Peace exercised their judicial and administrative functions for the county, and generated a variety of records from that role (WJ/). This class includes, however, records deposited, filed (enrolled) or registered 'by statute' with the Clerk of the Peace, to be kept with the sessions records, and be available for inspection. These were records presented to the justices in a session, and certified before them, but which were not part of the normal sessions work, although sometimes it is hard to make the distinction. Indeed, statutes ordering the creation of these records often stipulated that returns or registers should be 'filed on the rolls of the Sessions of the Peace" or "be deposited with the Clerk of the Peace to be registered and kept with the records of Quarter Sessions", which means in practice that many records which were created outside the normal sessions work are found on the sessions rolls (MJ/SR, WJ/SR), in the sessions books (WJ/SB, MJ/SB) or in the sessions papers (WJ/SP, MJ/SP), as well as in their own series.

These are records reflecting the political and social concerns of the times - the development of transport and travel; the ninettenth century utility schemes for gas, water and railways; and control of law and order and social structures through measures such as the prevention of treasonable meetings and literature, secular and religious; the registration of foreigners in the capital; knowledge of those able to serve in the local militia in times of internal and external trouble and the limiting of those eligible for jury service or to vote in elections as determined by the value of the property they held.

All aspects of life were regulated from slaughterhouses and hospitals to the price of corn in markets, and building practices. The overriding fear of government from the seventeenth century to early nineteenth century was the threat perceived to be posed by non-conformists - Roman Catholic or Protestant - anyone considering public office had to show that their loyalty was greater to the state than to their faith by taking a variety of oaths or producing certificates confirming their allegiance to the established church.

The Custos Rotulorum (Keeper of the Rolls) was responsible for the care of the county records. Appointed (since the fourteenth century) in the Commission of the Peace (WJP/C), he was a leading justice, unpaid and holding the post for life; and from the seventeenth century usually also holding the office of Lord Lieutenant of the county. His Deputy was the Clerk of the Peace, who was in practice the actual keeper of the records, who drew up, registered and oversaw the storage of the records. He also acted as clerk to the many committees set up by the justices, but delegated much of his work to deputies. He too held the post for life, but was paid a salary and could claim fees, as well as being in addition a local practising lawyer in his own right. An Act of Parliament of 1545 stipulated that the Clerk should be "learned and instructed in the laws of the realm", and he was often called upon to advise the justices on points of law or its procedure. Relevant records may also be found in those of the Clerk of the Peace (WC/); Lieutenancy (L/); and other offices held by county officers (TC/).

Community Health Councils were established in England and Wales in 1974 "to represent the interests in the health service of the public in its district" (National Health Service Reorganisation Act, 1973). Often referred to as 'the patient’s voice in the NHS', each Community Health Council (CHC) served the public and patients in its local area by representing their interests to National Health Service (NHS) authorities and by monitoring the provision of health services to their communities.

CHCs were independent statutory bodies with certain legal powers. CHCs were entitled to receive information about local health services, to be consulted about changes to health service provision, and to carry out monitoring visits to NHS facilities. For this reason, CHCs were sometimes known as the 'watchdogs’ of the NHS. The co-ordinated monitoring of waiting times in Accident and Emergency departments led to ‘Casualty Watch’ which gained national press coverage. Locally, many CHCs represented patients’ views by campaigning for improved quality of care and better access to NHS services, and by responding to local issues such as proposed hospital closures.

Each CHC had around 20 voluntary members from the local area. Half were appointed the local authority, a third came from voluntary bodies and the remainder were appointed by the Secretary of State for Health. Members met every month to six weeks and meetings were usually open to the general public. Guest speakers or guest attendees were often invited, particularly when a specific topic or issue was under discussion.

All CHCs employed a small number of paid office staff and some had shop-front offices, often on the high street, where members of the public could go for advice and information about local NHS services. CHCs published leaflets and guidance on a wide variety of topics from ‘how to find a GP’ to ‘how to make a complaint’.

Within the guiding principles and statutory duties of the legislation, CHCs developed organically in response to the needs of the communities they served and for this reason considerable variation can be found in the records of different CHCs.

Southwark CHC began life as King’s Health District (Teaching) CHC, known from November 1974 onwards simply as King’s CHC. The CHC was divided into three geographical sub-groups: Northern Southwark; Southern Southwark; and Lambeth. A permanent shop-front office was established at 75 Denmark Hill in September 1976 and remained the CHC’s base until 2003.

In the NHS Reorganisation of 1982 King’s CHC was wound up and held its last meeting on 20 May 1982. The inaugural meeting of Camberwell CHC was held on 16 September 1982 with many of the same members. The records of the CHC continue seamlessly between the two organisations.

Community Health Councils were established in England and Wales in 1974 "to represent the interests in the health service of the public in its district" (National Health Service Reorganisation Act, 1973). Often referred to as 'the patient’s voice in the NHS', each Community Health Council (CHC) served the public and patients in its local area by representing their interests to National Health Service (NHS) authorities and by monitoring the provision of health services to their communities.

CHCs were independent statutory bodies with certain legal powers. CHCs were entitled to receive information about local health services, to be consulted about changes to health service provision, and to carry out monitoring visits to NHS facilities. They also had the power to refer decisions about proposed closures of NHS facilities to the Secretary of State for Health. For this reason, CHCs were sometimes known as the ‘watchdogs’ of the NHS. The co-ordinated monitoring of waiting times in Accident and Emergency departments led to ‘Casualty Watch’ which gained national press coverage. Locally, many CHCs represented patients’ views by campaigning for improved quality of care and better access to NHS services, and by responding to local issues such as proposed hospital closures.

Each CHC had around 20 voluntary members from the local area. Half were appointed the local authority, a third were elected from voluntary bodies and the remainder were appointed by the Secretary of State for Health. Members met every month to six weeks and meetings were usually open to the general public. Guest speakers or guest attendees were often invited, particularly when a specific topic or issue was under discussion.

All CHCs employed a small number of paid office staff and some had shop-front offices, often on the high street, where members of the public could go for advice and information about local NHS services. CHCs published leaflets and guidance on a wide variety of topics from ‘how to find a GP’ to ‘how to make a complaint’.

Within the guiding principles and statutory duties of the legislation, CHCs developed organically in response to the needs of the communities they served and for this reason considerable variation can be found in the records of different CHCs.

Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster Community Health Council was created in April 1995. The area had formerly been served by Parkside Community Health Council. Parkside CHC was created around the same time that Parkside District Health Authority was created in 1988 through the amalgamation of the Paddington & North Kensington and the Brent District Health Authorities. The CHCs appear to have amalgamated also, Paddington & North Kensington CHC combining with Brent CHC to create Parkside CHC. In 1990 Parkside District was enlarged through the addition of a part of the City of Westminster from the abolished Bloomsbury District. Parkside District Health Authority was abolished in 1993 and replaced by Brent & Harrow District Health Authority and Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster District Health Authority. With the abolition of the Parkside District Health Authority, Parkside CHC was wound up. In the Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster District Health Authority area it was replaced by the newly-formed Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster Community Health Council. The offices of the CHC at 45-47 Praed Street remained in use by the new CHC. In the Brent & Harrow District Health Authority area Parkside CHC was replaced by Brent CHC (see LMA/4752).

Community Health Councils in England were abolished in 2003 as part of the ‘NHS Plan (2000)’.

The Saint Thomas' Hospital Group was formed in 1948 when the National Health Service was established by the National Health Service Act 1946. Originally it included only Saint Thomas' Hospital, the Grosvenor Hospital, the General Lying-In Hospital and the Royal Waterloo Hospital. However, the Lambeth Hospital became part of the Group in 1964 when the Lambeth Group Hospital Management Committee merged with the Wandsworth Hospital Management Committee to form the South West London Group Hospital Management Committee. In addition, the South Western Hospital moved to the Saint Thomas' Group in 1968, and the Royal Eye Hospital joined in about 1973.

In 1974, the National Health Service was re-organized into Area Health Authorities, split into Districts, rather than Groups. The Saint Thomas' Hospital Group became the Saint Thomas' Health District (Teaching) of the Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham Area Health Authority, and now included Saint Thomas', Grosvenor, General Lying-In Hospital, Lambeth, Royal Waterloo and South Western Hospitals. These were joined in 1975 by Tooting Bec Hospital.

There was a further re-organization of the National Health Service in 1982, when the Saint Thomas' Health District (Teaching) became the West Lambeth Health Authority, now comprising Saint Thomas', General Lying-In, South Western and Tooting Bec Hospitals, with the addition of the Saint John's Hospital for Diseases of the Skin.

The final stage of reorganization occurred in 1993, when Saint Thomas' Hospital merged with Guy's Hospital to form the Guy's and Saint Thomas' Hospital Trust after the Tomlinson report of 1992 recommended that one of them be closed.

The Grosvenor Hospital was established in 1865 as the Pimlico and Westminster Institute, a dispensary for women and children. Its president until 1885 was the Earl of Shaftesbury. In 1873 property at 29 Vincent Square, Westminster, was obtained and the dispensary became the Vincent Square Hospital for Women and Children. In 1875 the house next door was also purchased, increasing the number of beds. Medical students were not admitted but from 1879 lady missionaries were allowed to attend for clinical instruction.

The Hospital was renamed the Grosvenor Hospital for Women and Children in 1884. The aims of the hospital were established as the treatment of women with diseases peculiar to their sex, and the treatment of children as out patients who had illness that were not contagious. Formal rules for the admission of inpatients were drawn up in 1885 - patients were charged 5 shillings a week if recommended by a subscriber, otherwise the fee was 10 shillings. Patients had to pay for their own laundry. Out-patients paid between twopence and a shilling per visit and had to bring their own medicine bottles.

In 1891 a third house was added so that the total accommodation was 18 beds and 3 private wards. A new outpatients department was built in 1895, while a new in-patients ward was completed in 1897, opened by Princess Louise. The new building provided 36 beds. An additional floor was added in 1905, providing a new operating theatre, anaesthetics room and separate bedrooms for the nurses. Further extensions were added in 1936 - 1938. In 1948 when the National Health Service came into being the Hospital became part of the St Thomas's Group. Administration was carried out centrally but the name of the Hospital was retained, and it became the gynaecological wing of Saint Thomas'. It was closed in 1976.

The General Lying-In Hospital was opened in April 1767 as the Westminster New Lying-In Hospital. In 1818 this name was changed to the General Lying-In Hospital. It was founded by Dr John Leake, a lecturer in Midwifery, who in 1765 obtained the site on what is now Westminster Bridge Road and made a public appeal for funds. The hospital's aim was to provide "Relief of those Child-bearing Women who are the Wives of poor industrious Tradesmen or distressed House-keepers and who either from unavoidable misfortunes or the Expences of maintaining large Families are reduced to real Want. Also for the reception and immediate relief of indigent Soldiers' and Sailors' Wives, the former being very numerous in and about the City of Westminster" (from the address of Dr Leake at the first meeting of sponsors, August 7 1765).

The leases for the hospital site expired in 1826 and so in 1825 the Governors decided to purchase a new site for the hospital in York Road, Lambeth. The hospital moved there in September 1828. It was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1830. A program of modernisation and extension was begun in 1878, and in 1879 a training school for midwifes and monthly nurses was established. Sir Joseph Lister was appointed Consulting Surgeon in March 1879 and served in this capacity until 1911. He had also been President from 1897 to 1911. Under his leadership the hospital was the first in Britain to practise antiseptic midwifery.

Extensive rebuilding of the hospital took place between 1929 and 1933, when a new Out-Patient Department and Nurses Home were opened. At the outbreak of war in 1939 the hospital was evacuated to St Albans, not returning until 1946. The Out-Patient Department stayed at York Road throughout the war. In 1948 the hospital became part of the National Health Service in the Saint Thomas' Hospital Group. It was administered centrally but the old name was retained, and it became the maternity wing of the hospital. It was closed in 1971.

From the end of the First World War until 1922 No 35 Black Prince Road, Kennington, London, was used as a model Day Nursery. In 1922 wards were opened for the treatment of children with dietary disturbances and difficulty feeding. The hospital also included a scheme for training Nursery Nurses, and the nursery was renamed The Babies Hostel. The Hostel joined Saint Thomas' Hospital in 1924 when the lease of the building was presented to the Hospital by Mrs E. Mitchison, in memory of her son, Lieutenant Anthony Mitchison, who had died in action in the First World War. From 1924 to 1927 it was called Saint Thomas' Cornwall Babies Hostel, since it stood on land belonging to the Duchy of Cornwall. It was renamed Saint Thomas' Babies Hostel in 1927, when it became affiliated to the Association of Nursery Training Colleges.

During the war the hostel was evacuated first to Cricklade, Wiltshire, from 1939 to 1942, and then to Greys, near Guildford, Surrey from 1942 to 1946. In August 1962 a day hospital for disturbed children under five and their parents was started at the Babies Hostel for three days a week. From 1965 the hostel was devoted entirely to the work and was renamed the Psychiatric Day Hospital for Children and their Families. The records held at the London Metropolitan Archives all date from before April 1965 and are the records of the Babies Hostel.

St Thomas's Hospital has its origins in a small infirmary attached to the Augustinian Priory of St Mary the Virgin (St Mary Overie), which was destroyed by fire in 1212. During the Reformation in 1540 the hospital, along with many other religious foundations, was dispossessed of its revenues and closed. Edward VI restored St Thomas's estates and revenues. The hospital re-opened with 120 beds and three Barber Surgeons, assisted by apprentices, were appointed, possibly marking the beginning of St Thomas's Hospital Medical School. A royal charter of 1553 made the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of London perpetual Governors of King's Hospital, as it was known for a time before becoming St Thomas's Hospital.

The hospital underwent an extensive building programme between 1693 and 1709, and about 300 beds were provided. Medical education was also formalised at this time, with regulations introduced to control the entry of pupils into the hospital. Students were educated on the wards long before this time. A record of one of the apprentices of a surgeon at St Thomas's appears in 1561. By the second half of the seventeenth century surgeons at the hospital were accepting the apprentices of other surgeons for short periods of tuition within the hospital. The physicians at the hospital had some pupils, though a fewer number than the surgeons. From about the early 18th century the Hospital Apothecary also apprenticed pupils.

Until the mid nineteenth century there were three types of student attending the medical school: surgeons' apprentices and dressers, dressers who had served an apprenticeship elsewhere and were completing their training with a particular surgeon, and pupils, who were not attached to any particular surgeon. Pupils first appeared in 1723, and tended to be on the periphery of surgical procedures. Their numbers were unrestricted and they paid smaller fees than dressers. All students were able to attend the courses of lectures provided by the teaching staff at the hospitals and dissection classes. The study of anatomy was the most prestigious course offered at St Thomas's. New accommodation for dissection classes was provided in 1814, and allowed up two hundred students at a time to practice dissection. Other courses offered to students included chemistry, materia medica, physiology and midwifery.

The popularity and influence of the medical schools led to the building of new facilities at St Thomas's Hospital. New accommodation was opened in 1814, and comprised a museum, laboratory, library, dissection room and large lecture theatre. In 1842 the Hospital Governors stepped in to rationalise and improve the status of the medical school, and took over the management for the next sixteen years. A medical school fund was established and administered by the Hospital Treasurer to pay for the general running costs of the school, including the salaries of the non-teaching staff. A Medical School Committee was created to govern the school, appoint lecturers and oversee expenditure. The first Dean, Dr Henry Burton, was appointed in 1849. In 1858, management of the school was restored to the physicians and surgeons and in 1860 to the teaching staff, as the school had become self-financing.

In 1866 the extension of the railway from London Bridge to Charing Cross forced the Hospital to move to Lambeth, at the foot of Westminster Bridge. The new accommodation and new teaching staff heralded a good start for the new medical school. However, by 1892 most of the teaching staff had left and the new student intake was only forty-three. The enlargement of facilities at the school helped revive the school's reputation, and by 1900 student numbers were improving and increased rapidly.

St Thomas's Hospital and Medical School were seriously disrupted by the Second World War. Students were dispersed among other London hospitals and the pre-clinical school went to Wadham College, Cambridge. With the establishment of the National Health Service the medical school became a separate corporate body in 1948 and one of the general medical schools of the University of London. In 1949 the school accepted its first female medical student. The annual intake of students continued to increase throughout the 1960s and 1970s. In 1982 the medical schools of Guy's and St Thomas's Hospitals reunited as the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals (UMDS). In 1990 King's College London began discussions with the United Schools and a formal merger with UMDS took place on 1 August 1998. The merger created three new schools: the Guy's, King's and St Thomas' Schools of Medicine, of Dentistry and of Biomedical Sciences, and reconfigured part of the former School of Life, Basic Medical and Health Sciences as the new School of Health and Life Sciences.

On Nov. 9th, 1855 a public meeting was held in Willis's Rooms, King Street, St James to inaugurate a public subscription in gratitude for Florence Nightingale's work in the Crimean War. £44,000 was raised, a committee was set up to administer this fund, and on March 13th 1860, A. H. Clough wrote on behalf of the Nightingale Fund Council to the President, Treasurer and Governors of Saint Thomas' Hospital about the possibility of founding a training school for nurses at the hospital. This was Florence Nightingale's idea as to how the fund could best be used. She was particularly attracted to Saint Thomas' Hospital because Mrs Wardroper, the Matron, had already initiated a programme of reform in 1855. Mrs Wardroper became the first Superintendant of the Training School, remaining at the hospital until 1887 and it was largely due to her efforts that the school was such a success in the early years.

The first fifteen Probationers arrived on July 9th 1860. They were paid a salary of £10 during the one year's course, with board and lodging provided. At the end of the year, if they were approved, they were entered on the Register of Certified Nurses, and employment was found for them. If they stayed in employment for a complete year after their training they could earn gratuities of £3 and £5. Instruction during the course was mainly practical, with the Probationers working in the hospital wards under close supervision. Considerable emphasis was placed on high moral character. From 1867 there were two classes of entry to the school: 1) Ordinary Probationers, who entered on the basis of a small salary and free board, as above and 2) Lady Probationers or Special probationers. These were trained specially for posts as Superintendents and Matrons of other institutions on completion of their training. They paid a sum of £30 for the year's tuition, and board and lodging.

One of the particular features of the Nightingale Training School was that nurses were trained not merely for Saint Thomas' Hospital, but with the clear intention that they be sent out in groups to other institutions to undertake nursing reform. The school had only been open two years when the first group went to Liverpool Royal Infirmary, and subsequent groups went as far as Canada and Australia, as well as to many British hospitals.

Another important and distinctive feature of the Nightingale system was that the Probationers were provided with board and lodging. When the new hospital opened in Lambeth in 1871, special provision was made for the Nightingale Home. In 1872, a Home Sister was appointed for the first time. She undertook part of the tuition, a Sister Tutor not being appointed until 1913. In 1937 Riddell House was opened as a new Nurses' Home, a present to Saint Thomas' Hospital and the Nightingale Training School by Lady Riddell, as a memorial to Lord Riddell.

Saint Thomas' Home is the part of Saint Thomas' Hospital which provides for private paying patients. The principle of accepting paying patients was accepted by the Governors in November 1878 after much controversy, as it was thought to be an infringement of the charter of 1551 which had constituted the Hospital as a house of the poor. However, more income was needed if the poor were to be properly served and the Hospital to be made financially secure.

Two wards named 'Adelaide' and 'Alice' were opened as Saint Thomas' Home in March 1881. The charges were 8 shillings a day in a general ward and 12 shillings a day in a private room. The Home proved a success, especially with patients who did not have homes of their own at which they could be nursed - for example, clerks living in lodgings, visitors in London, or colonists returned to England for medical care.

On the completion of Gassiot House in 1906 the Home moved into the bottom two floors. It was closed to patients on the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, and the space was used to house members of the administrative and medical staff. It reopened in 1950 in Gassiot House, and in 1966 moved to Simon Ward in the East Wing of the new hospital buildings.

The Gordon Hospital has undergone a series of name changes since its opening in June 1884. Originally named the Western Hospital for Fistula, Piles and Other Diseases of the Rectum in 1884, it changed its name to the Gordon Hospital for Fistula, Piles and Other Diseases of the Rectum in 1886, Gordon Hospital for Rectal Diseases in 1911, and the Gordon Hospital for Diseases of the Rectum and Colon in 1939. It finally became the Gordon Hospital in 1941.

The hospital opened in a house in Vauxhall Bridge Road but moved to a purpose-built site, in the same road, in 1899. It was rebuilt in 1947.

In 1948 the hospital merged with the Westminster Hospital as a result of the changes instituted by the new National Health Service. It was subsequently part of the South West Metropolitan Region. In 1974 the Westminster group formed part of the North West Thames Regional Health Authority and the South (Teaching) Health District. In 1982 it became part of the Riverside District Health Authority.

On 1st April 1999 the Gordon Hospital became part of Brent, Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster NHS Trust, formed from North West London Mental Health NHS Trust, half of Riverside Mental Health NHS Trust and the mental health component of Parkside Health NHS Trust.

The scheme for funding a convalescent home was first made public by an anonymous letter to The Times in January 1890. The writer wished to remain unnamed but a journalist revealed his identity as Peter Reid, a prominent member of the stock exchange. He donated the initial sum of one hundred thousand pounds and a friend provided an additional fifty thousand pounds. Mr Ebenezer Homan provided a spacious chapel. There were several convalescent homes near Swanley at the time so it was thought it would be a good location for a new one. An estate known as Parkwood with about 70 acres of garden woodland and fields was purchased and the home was built.

The home was opened on 9 June 1893 providing 80 beds for men and 40 beds for women. Built and owned by Peter Reid it was intended to take patients from several London hospitals in the early stages of convalescence. This was considered an urgent need as at that time most homes only took people in the later stages. There was no formal opening ceremony but on 9 June the home was inspected by a large number of guests. The visitors attended a dedication service, for which a choir was provided from St. Paul's Cathedral.

In the early days Parkwood had a strong affiliation with St. Bartholomew's Hospital and the two other trustees besides Peter Reid were a senior surgeon and Clerk to the Governors of that hospital. However, beds at the home were allocated to a number of different hospitals: 30 to the London, 20 each to Guy's, St. Thomas' and the Middlesex and 15 each to Westminster and St. Mary's.

In 1914 the home was closed due to wartime lack of staff but it was forced to reopen in 1917. There was a great explosion in Silvertown and 400 children from the East End of London were temporarily re-housed at Parkwood. A short while after this the home became a military hospital annexed to Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup, which lasted until the end of the war.

Peter Reid had remained Chairman of the trustees of Parkwood until his death in 1917. He was succeeded by Sir Arthur Lucas (died 1922) and then Sir John Murray.

In 1921 Parkwood began its long association with Westminster Hospital. Charles M. Power, house governor and secretary to the Westminster Hospital was also secretary of Parkwood 1921-54.

Parkwood became a military hospital during the Second World War, despite the fact that it was in the direct line of enemy attack. It remained open and treated a number of patients that had been injured during the bombing of London. The nursing staff were provided by the British Red Cross Society, and the Commandant, Miss K. Pawley, continued her association with Parkwood after the war by managing the library and serving on the House Committee.

Parkwood was very little affected by the Health Service Act and the introduction of the NHS in 1948 as it was already part of the Westminster Hospital and no change of administration was imposed. The Board of Governors of the Westminster pursued a policy of making maximum use of Parkwood and it became an auxiliary hospital dealing with more serious cases rather than convalescents.

By the late 1950s Parkwood had 110 beds but was suffering from a shortage of nurses so they were not all used. By 1957 all the beds were for women, and were available first to the Westminster Group (Westminster Hospital, Gordon Hospital, All Saint's Hospital) and then to other hospitals in the South West and South East Metropolitan Regions. Parkwood was finally closed in 1964 and two years later the premises were taken over by the London Fire Brigade.

Mr Henry Chester of Putney who died in 1900 left about eighty thousand pounds in his will to endow a hospital if a general hospital was built in the parish of Putney within 20 years of his death. If no such hospital was built, the money was to go to Guy's. He appointed the Haberdashers' Company as trustees of his will with the responsibility of approving any site proposed for a hospital.

The doctors of Putney and the Putney Municipal Alliance were in favour of building a hospital in Putney and a committee was formed. A freehold site on Lower Common formerly occupied by two houses, The Elms and West Lodge, was purchased by Sir William Lancaster and was subsequently given by him to the Hospital Trustees. In 1905 a public meeting of the inhabitants of Putney elected a Building Committee to raise twenty thousand pounds to erect and equip the first block of the hospital which would provide 20 beds for inpatients.

In January 1906 a joint meeting of the Richmond, Chelsea and Wandsworth Divisions of the British Medical Association decided to oppose the building of a large general hospital in Putney. The South West London Medical Hospital Committee was established to negotiate with the Putney Hospital Committee on the basis that a small general hospital on cottage hospital lines would meet the needs of Putney, there should be no treatment of out-patients, the number of non-paying beds should not be greater than the needs of the district or the resources of the endowment, and there should be directly elected representatives of the medical profession on the hospital's committee. Until agreement was reached, no medical man should have anything to do with the hospital.

Protracted and heated negotiations followed, with the two medical members of the Putney Hospital Committee, Dr John Guy and Mr E.F. White, defending the need for a hospital, protesting the initial support of the doctors of Putney as opposed to the wider area as represented by the British Medical Association, and affirming that there was no intention to establish a large general hospital or to treat out-patients. Eventually agreement was reached which allowed for a quarter of the Board of management of Putney Hospital to consist of medical men elected by and from the medical practitioners residing in and practising in Putney. However, a judgement by Mr Justice Joyce insisted that Putney hospital had to establish an out-patients department if it was to be a general hospital. The hospital finally admitted its first inpatients and out-patients in 1912.

Between 1926 and 1939 the hospital was enlarged with new wings to the north and south of the original building containing male and female wards, rooms for paying patients, a new out-patients department and a new operating theatre. A nurses' home was built in 1934 and extended a few years later. Further extensions and improvements were prevented by the outbreak of war. On 14 August 1944 the nurses' home was struck by a flying bomb. Fortunately no-one was injured, but the whole of the 2nd floor of the new wing and part of the 2nd floor of the original building had to be demolished, and a temporary roof erected.

In 1948 Putney Hospital became part of the National Health Service as one of the Battersea and Putney Group of Hospitals of the South West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board. Visitors from King Edward's Hospital Fund for London reported in 1953 that Putney Hospital had 106 beds, including 14 private beds which were constantly full, and 7 amenity beds, which were less in demand. They commented on the beds in the wards being very close together, "The last extension to this hospital was made in 1933. Since then the population round had grown enormously and is still growing fast." There was an immediate need for extending the out-patients department "which must be one of the smallest in any general hospital". By 1956 a scheme was in hand to extend Putney hospital to provide a new out-patients department and increase the number of beds to 178. Despite the problems of overcrowding King's Fund Visitors in that year described Putney as a first class hospital.

Between 1959 and 1961 existing buildings were upgraded and the hospital was extended with two new wards, Mackenzie Morris Ward and Sydney Turner Ward, opening in 1961 and 1962. A new casualty department opened in 1960 and a new out-patients department was opened in November 1961. Stage II of the development of Putney Hospital had been planned, but it was first deferred then abandoned. A new hospital plan envisaged the closure of Putney Hospital by 1971 as well as Battersea General Hospital, and the redevelopment of Saint John's Hospital in Battersea. In 1998 it was planned that Putney Hospital, part of Richmond, Twickenham and Roehampton Healthcare NHS Trust, be closed and its services transferred to Queen Mary's Hospital, Roehampton. By 2001 the hospital was part of South West London Community NHS Trust specialising in care of the elderly. The hospital was finally closed early in 2002.

The hospital was founded by Helen Levis, wife of Robert Mond, in July 1903. It was named the Saint Francis Hospital for Infants, after the Saint Francis Cripples' Home, whose premises the hospital took over. Later that same year, however, the name was changed to The Infants' Hospital, to avoid confusion with another institution of the same name.

In 1906 a purpose-built hospital was constructed in Vincent Square. This was financed by Sir Robert Mond as a memorial to his wife, the hospital's founder. The new hospital was opened in November 1907.

In 1923 the hospital was incorporated, and in September 1946 it was amalgamated with the Westminster hospital. In honour of this new connection the hospital's name was changed to the Westminster Children's Hospital.

From the start of the National Health Service in 1948 the hospital, as a member of the Westminster Hospital group, was part of the South West Metropolitan Region. In 1974 it formed part of the North West Thames Regional Health Authority and the South (Teaching) Health District. In 1982 it became part of the Riverside District Health Authority. The hospital was closed and it services moved to the new Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in May 1993.

The hospital later known as the Miller General Hospital was founded in 1783 as the Kent Dispensary, and housed initially in a house in the Broadway, Deptford. In 1837, at an Anniversary Dinner presided over by the Duke of Wellington, it was announced that Queen Victoria had agreed to become the patroness of the dispensary, and the name was accordingly changed to the Royal Kent Dispensary. In 1851 the dispensary was given notice to quit the house in Deptford. A site in Greenwich Road was purchased, and the new building was completed in 1855.

In 1883 the Governors of the Charity decided that it would be fitting to celebrate the centenary of the dispensary by the addition of hospital accommodation, which was badly needed in the area. This scheme was amalgamated with that of the Miller Memorial Committee, who had combined on the death of the Rev. Canon Miller, founder of Hospital Sunday, to institute a fitting memorial to him. He had, at the time of his death, been Vicar of Greenwich, and had worked hard in support of the dispensary. The foundation stone was laid in August 1883, and accounts of the occasion published in 'The Times' and 'The Kentish Mercury' can be read in H05/M/Y/02/1, page 171 ff., and in the Minute Book H05/M/A/01/3. The ceremony was followed by a dinner at which a collection was taken which was to form the basis of an endowment fund for the hospital.

The new hospital, built in the grounds of the dispensary, and known as the Miller Memorial Hospital, was opened in 1884. It was the first hospital in Great Britain to have circular wards. These were supposed, among other things, to allow for better ventilation, there being no corners for harbouring stale air and germs. Their cause was championed by Professor John Marshall, President of the Royal College of Surgeons, who had studied the phenomenon abroad. In 1908 the hospital became known as the Miller General Hospital for South East London. In 1912 a surgical block was started, in 1929 the Robinson wing was founded and in the 1930's the outpatient department. In 1928 there were 151 beds, 167 in 1935, 172 in 1937 and 180 in 1947. After 1948 the hospital was taken over by the National Health Service. It was closed at the end of 1974.

Guy's Hospital was the result of a project developed by Thomas Guy, a Governor of Saint Thomas' Hospital, between 1722 and 1724. His intention was to build a hospital for 'incurables'. A lease was granted to him by Saint Thomas', for land on the south side of St. Thomas' Street, and the original building was completed by the time that Guy died on 27 December 1724.

The new hospital was provided for in Guy's will, proved on 4 January 1725. It named nine trustees for the bequest, who were to be incorporated by Act of Parliament together with fifty one others as the Governors of the Hospital.

Accordingly, "An Act for Incorporating the Executors of the Last Will and Testament of Thomas Guy, late of the City of London, Esquire; Deceased, and others, in Order to the better management and Disposition of the Charities given by his said Last Will" was passed in 1725. The corporate body of Governors was established, to be known as 'the President and Governors of the Hospital founded at the sole costs and charges of Thomas Guy Esquire', in which was vested the property which Thomas Guy bequeathed in his will.

The first sixty patients were admitted to the Hospital on 6 January 1725. The hospital originally had capacity for 435 patients, but the need for more space quickly arose. Consequently, the original buildings were added to after 1738, when the East Wing was begun. The West Wing, containing the chapel, was built between 1774 and 1780. Hunt's House, funded by a bequest, was built in 1852 and added to in 1871.

A Committee of Governors was appointed by the General Court to report on the management of the Hospital in June 1896. The subsequent report, produced on 28 October 1896, recommended the establishment of the House, Estates, Finance and Staff and School Committees.

An Act for conferring further powers on the President and Governors of Guy's Hospital, known as the Guy's Hospital Act 1898, amended the Act of 1725. It empowered the General Court to make bye-laws fixing the number of Governors and to elect new governors.

The National Health Service Act was passed in 1946, and Guy's was transferred to the possession of the Ministry of Health on 5 July 1948. The administration of the Hospital was transferred from the General Court to a new Board of Governors, appointed by the Minister for Health.

Nuffield House for paying patients was opened in 1935 on the site of the original medical school buildings of 1825. It was provided by Lord Nuffield for less well-off patients.

Massage was first taught to nurses at Guy's in 1888. In 1913 the School of Physiotherapy was founded, with backing from Sir Cooper Perry, Superintendant and Mr William Henry Trethowan, Senior Orthopaedic surgeon. The School quickly outgrew its accomodation and spread into additional rooms in Hunt's House and across the hospital. In 1918 the decision was reached to bring the School together in its own building, this was completed in 1921 with money provided by Sir Percy Shepherd. The School of Physiotherapy remained in Shepherd House until its closure in 1992.

The first meeting of 'the Governors for erecting a Lying-in Hospital for married women in the City of London and parts adjacent and also for Out-patients in Phisic and Surgery' was held at the Black Swan Tavern in Bartholomew Lane on 30 March 1750. Mr Jacob Ilive was in the chair. The governors elected John Nix as the first secretary, Thomas Chaddock as treasurer, Richard Ball as surgeon and man-midwife and William Ball as apothecary. Slingsby Bethell subsequently became the first President of the hospital.

The hospital opened in May 1750 at London House in Aldersgate Street as the 'City of London Lying in Hospital for married women and sick and lame Outpatients.' The General Court of Governors decided on 6 September 1751 to admit no more outpatients and the second part of the title was dropped. The hospital moved in 1751 from London House into Thanet or Shaftesbury House also in Aldersgate Street. In 1769 the Governors decided to erect a new purpose built hospital. They leased a site from St Bartholomew's Hospital on the corner of City Road and Old Street and commissioned Robert Mylne to design the new hospital, which was opened on 31 March 1773.

In the 18th Century, all children born in the hospital were expected to be baptised publicly in the hospital chapel. Money for the hospital was raised by the collections taken at the public baptism ceremonies. The attendance of potential donors was encouraged by the performance of anthems and other sacred music. Special sermons, benefit plays, and performances of musical works such as El Penseroso and The Messiah also contributed to hospital funds.

You may go to Aldersgate-Street

A kind reception there you'll meet

Most safely to lie-in?

No one will know my charming Fair

But you are gone to take the Air

So return a Maid again'

(from Joyful News to Batchelors and Maids: Being a Song in Praise of the Foundling Hospital and the London Hospital Aldersgate Street c 1760 quoted in R. McClure Coram's Children, 1981, p.109)

Despite the above rhyme the benefits of the hospital were intended to be for married women only. Not until 1888 were single women admitted for a first confinement and then only in exceptional circumstances after careful investigation by the Committee of Management. The rules of the hospital were relaxed in 1912 to allow any 'Singlewomen who are sufficient recommended and are found to be deserving of the Benefits of the Hospital's Charity' to be eligible for admission for their first confinement.

In 1872 the hospital established an outdoor maternity department. Patients were delivered in their own homes by district midwives employed by the hospital. The district attended by the hospital was at first to be only the area within a mile of the hospital, but it was rapidly extended until by 1883 it included Shoreditch, Islington, St Luke's, Bethnal Green, Clerkenwell, Spitalfields, Hackney, Whitechapel, Holborn, and the City of London. By 1898 it also included parts of Stoke Newington and South Hornsey. The outdoor maternity department rapidly became very popular and by 1880 was admitting over a thousand patients a year, roughly three times as many outpatients as inpatients. In 1910, 2742 outpatients were delivered compared to 842 inpatients. After the introduction of maternity benefit in 1912 through the National Insurance Act, the numbers of outpatients decreased and the area of the district contracted to the parts nearer the hospital.

Midwifery training at the hospital was reorganised in the 1880s. From 1886 midwifery pupils in their last month of training were allowed to attend outpatients living near the hospital.

During the 19th Century the hospital suffered a number of outbreaks of puerperal fever. A severe outbreak of puerperal fever in 1877 caused the hospital to be closed for almost eighteen months from 24 November 1877 to April 1879. Despite sanitary improvements, mortality in the hospital remained excessively high and in June 1880 antiseptic rules were introduced. However in February 1883 the hospital again had to be closed temporarily.

The hospital building was badly damaged by the construction of the Great Northern and City Railway underneath Old Street. Between 1904 and 1907 the old hospital was demolished and a new hospital built on the same site. The name of the hospital was changed in 1918 to The City of London Maternity Hospital. A royal charter was granted to the hospital in 1935.

On the outbreak of War in 1939, the hospital equipped and staffed Brocket Hall near Hatfield in Hertfordshire as a maternity unit for evacuated mothers administered by Hertfordshire County Council. The hospital in City Road was badly damaged by bombing on 10 September 1940, 16 April 1941 and 10 May 1941. The rear part of the building subsequently had to be demolished. Although the front portion of the building could still be used for clinics and administration, no inpatients could be admitted into the hospital after September 1940. Inpatients were transferred to Friern Barnet Hospital until March 1941 when the maternity beds were required for war casualties. Outpatients continued to be delivered in their own homes and expectant mothers who were willing to leave London were evacuated to Brocket Hall. In January 1942 twelve beds were made available for emergency cases in the London Fever Hospital in Liverpool Road, Islington. The number of beds was later increased to forty.

At the end of war, in 1946, the City of London Maternity Hospital took over financial responsibility for Brocket Hall from Hertfordshire County Council. It was decided not to rebuild the hospital on the very noisy site in City Road. Former homes for the blind in Hanley Road, Islington, were acquired from the Institute for the Blind and the hospital opened in Hanley Road in November 1949. Clinics continued to be held in the City Road building until 1955 when a modern building was opened adjacent to the hospital in Hanley Road.

In 1948 the hospital was taken over by the National Health Service and came under the control of the Northern Group Hospital Management Committee. In 1974 the hospital became part of Islington Health District. The hospital closed in 1983.

The chief authority in the hospital lay with the General Court of Governors, which met twice a year, though special courts could be summoned more frequently if required. The main business of the hospital devolved on to the House Committee, which was chosen by the General Court. The House Committee met every week at the hospital to admit and discharge patients, to inspect the running of the hospital and to deal with other business. The Committee, which was also known as the Weekly Committee or the Committee of Governors, reported its proceedings to each General Court and a copy of the report was entered in the hospital minute books. After March 1857 the House Committee met only once a month. A rota of the committee consisting of two members of the committee in rotation met once a week at the hospital to admit patients. This became known as the Rota Committee. In 1880 the constitution of the hospital was amended. Governors' meetings were to be held in future once a year in February. The Committee became the Committee of Management meeting once a month while the Rota Committee was to continue to meet once a week at the hospital. A Finance Committee was established which held quarterly meetings.

Under the Royal Charter granted on 28 January 1935 the annual general meeting of the Governors was to be held in March. The Committee of Management was replaced by the Board of Management, which was to have the entire management of the hospital.

The fourth surviving governors' minute book includes an inventory of the books and papers belonging to the hospital drawn up on 1 June 1789. It is clear from this and from references in the hospital minute books that many records do not survive. Some records may have been destroyed when the hospital was bombed in 1940 and 1941. Others, including eight of the first nine admission registers, were sent for salvage during the Second World War. Onward for June 1942 states that 'In common with other Hospitals we have 'salvaged' a large quantity of paper (correspondence, records, books and the like) which, in the piping times of peace, accumulated over a long period of time, but in these critical days is put to National use.'

Colney Hatch Asylum opened at Friern Barnet in July 1851 as the second pauper lunatic asylum for the County of Middlesex. The first Middlesex County Pauper Asylum, now Saint Bernard's Hospital, had opened at Hanwell in 1831 (see H11/HLL). In 1851 Colney Hatch, designed in the Italianate style by S. W. Dawkes, with 1,250 beds was the largest and most modern institution of its kind in Europe. Within ten years it was enlarged to take 2,000 patients. It had its own cemetery (closed in 1873 after which patients were buried in the Great Northern Cemetery), its own farm on which many patients were employed, its own water supply, and its own sewage works built after local residents complained of untreated sewage from the asylum flowing into Pym's Brook.

On the creation of the County of London in 1889 Colney Hatch Asylum was transferred from the control of the Middlesex Justices to the London County Council, although it remained geographically within the administrative county of Middlesex. The need for more accommodation for lunatics led to construction in 1896 of a temporary wood and iron building for 320 chronic and infirm female patients in five dormitories. This was destroyed by a fire in 1903 with the loss of 51 lives. Between 1908 and 1913 seven permanent brick villas were built, one for behavioural disordered subnormal and epileptic boys, two with verandas for tubercular and dysenteric cases, and the remainder for women who had survived the fire. In 1912 a disused carpenter's shop and stores at the railway siding were converted into additional accommodation for male patients. Brunswick House at Mistley in Essex was leased in 1914 to provide 50 beds for working male patients supervised by a single charge attendant and four assistants. After the First World War Brunswick House became a separate unit for higher-grade subnormals.

Construction of a male admission villa in 1927 and a female nurses home in 1937 freeing 89 beds for female patients brought the number of patients to its highest total of almost 2,700. In 1937 it was renamed Friern Hospital. Patients were admitted from the Metropolitan boroughs of Finsbury, Hampstead, Holborn, Islington, Saint Marylebone, Saint Pancras and Shoreditch. Jewish patients from the whole of the County of London were as far as possible congregated at Friern, which provided special arrangements for the preparation of food and religious ministrations. The staff included nine full time doctors, 494 nurse and 171 probationers.

On the outbreak of the Second World War 12 wards along the main front corridor containing 215 male and 409 female beds were taken over by the Emergency Medical Service run by units from Saint Bartholomew's Hospital. Patients were sent to other hospitals or distributed around the remaining wards. Five villas were either destroyed or damaged by air raids in 1941 in which 36 patients and 4 nurses died. Shortage of accommodation resulted in acute overcrowding.

In 1948 Friern Hospital became part of the National Health Service under the control of the North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board. It had its own Hospital Management Committee, which was renamed the New Southgate Group Hospital Management Committee on the opening of Halliwick Hospital in 1958. This was a new 145 bed block built in the grounds of Friern at a distance from the main hospital. It was intended to serve as an admission unit to separate recent cases from confirmed, long stay patients. In practice it became a 'neurosis unit' for 'less sick, socially superior, and fringe patients' (Hunter and MacAlpine p.50) selected by the medical staff. By 1972 it ceased to be treated as a separate hospital and, now known as Halliwick House, provided admission and convalescent beds for the main hospital.

By 1973 the official maximum number of patients in Friern had been reduced to 1,500. On the reorganisation of the National Health Service in 1974 the hospital became the responsibility of the North East Thames Regional Health Authority and Camden and Islington Area Health Authority. On the abolition of area health authorities in 1982, Friern was transferred to Hampstead Health Authority, which in 1993 merged with Bloomsbury and Islington Health Authority to form Camden and Islington Health Authority. By 1989 it had been decided that Friern Hospital should close as part of the policy of replacing large long stay mental hospitals with care in the community. The hospital finally closed on 31 March 1993.

Elizabeth Garrett was the first woman to train and qualify as a doctor in Great Britain. In July 1866 she opened St Mary's Dispensary at no. 69 Seymour Place, Bryanston Square, St Marylebone, where she offered women and children the opportunity of being treated by a female doctor. As well as attending the 60 to 90 out-patients who crowded to each session at the dispensary, she visited patients in their own homes and took charge of midwifery cases in the area. Her marriage to J.G.S. Anderson in 1871 did not prevent her from continuing and expanding her work. In 1872 Lord Shaftesbury opened a ward for 10 beds at the dispensary, which now became known as the New Hospital for Women.

In 1874 the hospital moved to larger premises at nos. 222 and 224 Marylebone Road. In 1889 the Princess of Wales laid the foundation stone of the present hospital building in Euston Road, which was completed in 1890. After the death of its founder in 1917, the hospital was renamed the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital.

The hospital offered the London School of Medicine for Women (established in 1874) opportunities for clinical teaching, soon augmented by being given access to the wards of the Royal Free Hospital. The Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital continued to provide women doctors with valuable experience in hospital posts.

Between 1913 and 1948 the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital gradually expanded its activities. In 1912 a legacy enabled the hospital to establish a house of recovery situated in country surroundings not far from London. A large house, no. 83 Gloucester Road, New Barnet, was purchased and named Rosa Morison House after its benefactor. This remained part of the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital until 1972, when it was transferred to Barnet Group Hospital Management Committee.

Additional property adjoining the hospital was also acquired on which was built the Queen Mary Wing, opened by the Queen in 1929, and the Nurses' House, opened by the Duchess of Kent in 1938. In 1946 the hospital purchased the Hampstead Nursing Home, 40 Belsize Grove, Hampstead, which was opened by Queen Mary in 1948 as the Garrett Anderson Maternity Home, a maternity unit with 27 beds.

On the formation of the National Health Service in 1948, the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital became one of the Royal Free Hospital group of teaching hospitals. In April 1962 it was transferred to the North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board where it became at first part of the Northern Group of hospitals, then from April 1963 part of the North London Group. On the reorganisation of the health service in 1974, the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital became part of the South Camden District in the Camden and Islington Area Health Authority.

Despite massive public support for the hospital, in 1976 the Secretary of State decided that it should close, but recommended that the work of the hospital should be transferred to a district general hospital in the same area in an identifiable form. Between 1975 and 1979 the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Appeal Trust lobbied to save the hospital and raised £900,000 from the public. After the general election in May 1979, the new government reversed the earlier decision and granted £2 million to convert the hospital into a small gynaecological unit, where women could be treated by women. The hospital reopened in 1984 with modern facilities, a new Well Women's service and good operating theatres.

In 1982 the hospital came under the control of the Bloomsbury Health Authority, and since 1991, Bloomsbury and Islington Health Authority. Despite closing the Soho Hospital for Women in 1988, the health authority decided in 1992 to close the beds at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital and to use the hospital for day surgery only.

Edgware General Hospital was originally known as Redhill Hospital and was built by Hendon Board of Guardians. Rather than extending the old Redhill Infirmary, in the 1920's Hendon Board of Guardians decided to build a new hospital of 175 beds on 20 acres of land at Burnt Oak. Work began in 1924 and Redhill Hospital opened in December 1927. It was taken over by Middlesex County Council on 1 April 1930 who renamed it Redhill County Hospital. Between 1936 and 1938, the Middlesex County Council built extensive additions to the hospital including a 60 bed maternity unit and a 329 bed medical unit. In January 1938 the Middlesex County Maternity Hospital opened in Bushey. This was administered from Redhill County Hospital. The hospital became part of the National Health Service in 1948 and came under the control of the North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board and Hendon Group Hospital Management Committee. Its name was changed the same year to Edgware General Hospital. It now forms part of Barnet Health Authority.

Kensington Infirmary and Kensington Workhouse were administered by the Kensington Board of Guardians until 1930. Kensington Workhouse became known as Kensington Institution in 1912 and Kensington Infirmary became St Mary Abbot's Hospital in 1923. In 1930 when the London County Council took over the two hospitals, St Mary Abbot's Hospital was designated a type A hospital for the acute sick, and Kensington Institution became a type B hospital for the chronic sick. In 1931 on the retirement of the Master of Kensington Institution, the hospital was placed under the charge of a Medical Superintendent as a first stage in integrating the two hospitals. This was carried a step further in 1933 when the Institution was renamed St Mary Abbot's Hospital (Institution).

From 1938 St Mary Abbot's Hospital became St Mary Abbot's Hospital (I) and St Mary Abbot's Hospital (Institution) became St Mary Abbot's Hospital (II), until 17 June 1944 when Hospital (II) was closed due to enemy action. The two hospitals were eventually united formally in 1948 when they were taken in to the National Health Service.

In 1838, the surgeon James Yearsley founded the Metropolitan Ear Nose and Throat Hospital, in Sackville Street, W1. It was the first hospital to specialise in diseases of the Ear, Nose and Throat. The hospital was transferred to Saint Mary Abbots Hospital in 1953, where it retained its identity as a specialist hospital until 1985 when it was removed from the control of Saint Mary Abbots and became part of the Ear, Nose and Throat Department of the new Charing Cross Hospital.

The oldest part of Kensington Workhouse, later known as Stone Hall, was built in 1847. A separate infirmary was built on the same site in 1871. Until 1875 the main dining hall behind the workhouse was used for chapel services. A legacy of two thousand five hundred pounds from Eliza France, wife of one of the Kensington Guardians, then made it possible to build a chapel to serve both the workhouse and the infirmary. The chapel was designed by A.W. Blomfield in the Early English style and was dedicated to Saint Elizabeth of Hungary. The chapel was demolished in 1974 and was replaced by a modern chapel dedicated by the Bishop of Kensington in an ecumenical service on 8 June 1977.

Kensington Infirmary and Kensington Workhouse were administered by the Kensington Board of Guardians until 1930. Kensington Workhouse became known as Kensington Institution in 1912 and Kensington Infirmary became Saint Mary Abbot's Hospital in 1923. In 1930 when the London County Council took over the two hospitals, Saint Mary Abbot's Hospital was designated a type A hospital for the acute sick, and Kensington Institution became a type B hospital for the chronic sick. In 1931 on the retirement of the Master of Kensington Institution, the hospital was placed under the charge of a Medical Superintendent as a first stage in integrating the two hospitals. This was carried a step further in 1933 when the Institution was renamed Saint Mary Abbot's Hospital (Institution).

From 1938 Saint Mary Abbot's Hospital became Saint Mary Abbot's Hospital (I) and Saint Mary Abbot's Hospital (Institution) became Saint Mary Abbot's Hospital (II), until 17 June 1944 when Hospital (II) was closed due to enemy action. The two hospitals were eventually united formally in 1948 when they were taken in to the National Health Service.

In 1948 Saint Mary Abbot's Hospital was assigned to the Fulham and Kensington Hospital Management Committee of the South West Metropolitan Region. On 1 October 1960 the Fulham and Kensington Hospital Management Committee was amalgamated with the Chelsea Hospital Management Committee to form the Chelsea and Kensington Hospital Management Committee which administered the hospital until 1974. At that date it became part of the Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster Area Health Authority, within the North West Thames Regional Health Authority. In 1982 the hospital became part of the Victoria Health Authority, and in 1986 it is part of the Riverside Health Authority.

From 1948 to 1955 the hospital was a general hospital with approximately 400 beds. From 1955 to 1972 it was designated an acute hospital. From 1972 to 1984 it specialised in Ear, Nose and Throat cases, geriatrics and psychiatrics, with geriatric and psychiatric day hospitals from 1978. During this period the number of beds at the hospital was 230 approximately. From 1984 the hospital has been designated a long-stay hospital. The hospital closed in 1992 on the opening of the new Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on the site of Saint Stephen's Hospital, Fulham Road.

Shoreditch Workhouse and Shoreditch Infirmary (later Saint Leonard's Hospital I) occupied adjoining parts of the same site which stretched from Hoxton Street in the west to Kingsland Road in the east. When the functions of the Boards of Guardians were transferred to the London County Council in 1930, Saint Leonard's Hospital had certified accommodation for 556 patients, while the workhouse (by then known as Saint Leonard's House) had certified accommodation for 424. On 1 April 1938 the L.C.C. completed its policy of removing its hospitals entirely from the ambit of the Poor Law by the appropriation of the remaining six institutions which accommodated chronic sick patients and which were within the curtilages of general hospitals. These included Saint Leonard's Institution which was renamed Saint Leonard's Hospital II to distinguish it from the neighbouring general hospital of the same name, which was to be known as Saint Leonard's Hospital I. By 1948, when Saint Leonard's Hospital became part of the National Health Service as one of the Central Group of hospitals, the two hospitals were being managed as one general hospital, much reduced in size.

Saint Matthew's Hospital was built in 1873 as City Road Workhouse by Holborn Board of Guardians on the site of Saint Luke's Workhouse. By 1930 when it was taken over by the London County Council, it had become known as Holborn and Finsbury Institution. The London County Council decided to use it as a hospital for the care of the chronic sick and renamed it Saint Matthew's Hospital in 1936. In 1948 Saint Matthew's Hospital became part of the National Health Service as one of the Central Group of Hospitals of the North East Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board. In 1974 Saint Matthew's Hospital became part of Tower Hamlets Health District (Teaching) of the City and East London Area Heath Authority. The hospital closed in 1986.

Shoreditch Workhouse and Shoreditch Infirmary (later Saint Leonard's Hospital I) occupied adjoining parts of the same site which stretched from Hoxton Street in the west to Kingsland Road in the east. The buildings were erected in about 1865 to replace an earlier workhouse. The workhouse (later the institution) occupied the eastern part of the site immediately behind the Board of Guardians offices which fronted on Kingsland Road. The infirmary occupied the western portion of the site adjoining Hoxton Street. An annexe to the infirmary was built in 1884 in the north east corner of the site next to Nuttall Street.

When the functions of the Boards of Guardians were transferred to the London County Council (L.C.C.) in 1930, Saint Leonard's Hospital had certified accommodation for 556 patients, while the workhouse (by then known as Saint Leonard's House) had certified accommodation for 424. The L.C.C. Architect considered that most of the ward blocks were badly planned lacking cross ventilation (LCC/AR/CB/3/1).

On 1 April 1938 the L.C.C. completed its policy of removing its hospitals entirely from the ambit of the Poor Law by the appropriation of the remaining six institutions which accommodated chronic sick patients and which were within the curtilages of general hospitals. These included Saint Leonard's Institution which was renamed Saint Leonard's Hospital II to distinguish it from the neighbouring general hospital of the same name, which was to be known as Saint Leonard's Hospital I. By 1938 the total bed complement of the two hospitals had been reduced to 649 of which 549 were sick beds. (L.C.C. Annual Report of the County Medical Officer of Health for 1938).

Plans by the L.C.C. to rebuild the hospitals ended with the outbreak of war in 1939. The hospitals suffered considerable bomb damage with the destruction of part of the main block and one of the three nurses' homes. By 1948, when Saint Leonard's Hospital became part of the National Health Service as one of the Central Group of hospitals; the two hospitals were being managed as one general hospital, much reduced in size. In 1956 the hospital had 192 beds, with the possibility of opening additional wards to provide a total of 250 beds, if the extra nursing staff could be made available (A/KE/735/9).;Since then it has been developed as a centre for co-ordinating community services and supporting health centres. In 1992 it became part of City and Hackney Community Services NHS Trust.

The Workhouse on the Bancroft Road site was built by the Board of Guardians of Mile End Old Town in 1858-1859. The foundation stone of the new Infirmary, erected under the powers conferred by the Metropolitan Poor Act, 1867, was laid in February 1881, and it was opened in March 1883. A Nurse Training School was established in 1892. The institution was taken over by the military authorities during the First World War; during the military occupation, 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. With the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948, the Hospital became part of the Stepney Group; the Stepney Group Hospital Management Committee was merged with the Central Group in 1966 to form the East London Group. In 1968, Mile End Hospital, together with Saint 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.

General Paralysis of the Insane (GPI) sufferers accounted for about 1 in 12 of mental hospital admissions. Patients with this illness would show signs of sudden psychotic symptoms, with unusual eye and muscular reflexes, speech and hearing problems, seizures and dementia, leading to incapacitation and death. The cause of GPI was an invasion of the central nervous system by syphilitic bacteria. In 1917 a new treatment was developed which involved deliberately infecting GPI patients with malaria, because the high fever which is a symptom of malaria raised the body temperature to as high as 40ºC and killed the bacteria causing the GPI. The cure was discovered after an outbreak of malaria in a mental hospital left many patients unexpectedly cured of their GPI.

In 1923 some of the mental hospitals run by the London County Council (LCC), including Horton Hospital, started to trial the malaria therapy. In 1925 it was decided to set up a specialist centre for London just to provide this malaria therapy for GPI patients. The centre, together with a separate specialist laboratory for the study of malaria, was established at Horton.

By 1935 about 700 patients had been treated. 75% were said to have recovered completely. The centre was named the Mott Clinic in the late 1920s, named after the Director of the Central Laboratory and Pathologist to the LCC Mental Hospitals, Sir Fredric Mott (1855-1926).

The development of antibiotics such as penicillin after World War Two reduced the need for malaria therapy. The laboratory was instead turned into a malaria research centre. The Mott Clinic became known as the Ministry of Health Malaria Laboratory, until 1952 when it became the Malaria Reference Laboratory. The Laboratory later moved from Epsom to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, becoming known as the Health Protection Agency Malaria Reference Laboratory.

Clapham Maternity Hospital was founded in 1889 by Dr Annie McCall and Miss Marion Ritchie. It was the first maternity hospital where women were treated only by female doctors, and where midwives, maternity nurses and female medical students were trained entirely by women. In 1935 the name of the hospital was changed to the Annie McCall Maternity Hospital. In 1948 the Annie McCall Maternity Hospital was transferred to the National Health Service and became part of the Lambeth Group of Hospitals of the South West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board. In 1964 most of the hospitals in the Lambeth Group, including the Annie McCall Maternity Hospital, became part of the newly formed South West London Group. The hospital closed in 1970.

The South London Hospital for Women was founded in 1912 "to satisfy two needs - a hospital for those female patients who prefer to be treated by a member of their own sex, and the opportunity for women doctors to train and work as hospital specialists". In 1939 the name of the hospital was changed to the South London Hospital for Women and Children. With the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948, the South London Hospital lost its independence becoming one of the Lambeth Group of Hospitals under the South West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board. In 1964 the Lambeth Group ceased to exist. Control of the South London Hospital passed to the newly formed South West London Group Hospital Management Committee. In 1974 it became part of the Wandsworth and East Merton Health District of the Merton, Sutton and Wandsworth Area Health Authority. In 1982 further reorganisation of the NHS transferred responsibility for the South London Hospital to Wandsworth Health Authority. The hospital closed in 1984.

Clapham Maternity Hospital was founded in 1889 by Dr Annie McCall and Miss Marion Ritchie. It was the first maternity hospital where women were treated only by female doctors, and where midwives, maternity nurses and female medical students were trained entirely by women. Poor married women were admitted to the hospital, as were unmarried women expecting their first child. A district midwifery service was also provided to deliver women in their own homes. In 1935 the name of the hospital was changed to the Annie McCall Maternity Hospital.

The hospital was situated initially at 41 and 43 Jeffreys Road, Clapham. Later 39 Jeffreys Road was purchased to enable the hospital to expand. By 1939 it had 50 beds for in-patients. In 1935 the name of the hospital was changed to the Annie McCall Maternity Hospital.

The hospital was severely damaged by bombing in 1940, which necessitated the complete evacuation of the patients and the closing down of the hospital. By 1948 three beds had been opened in a house connected to the hospital. The antenatal clinic and some district midwifery services were resumed. The hospital was rebuilt within its old walls and by 1954 had 36 beds in use. In 1948 the Annie McCall Maternity Hospital was transferred to the National Health Service and became part of the Lambeth Group of Hospitals of the South West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board. In 1964 most of the hospitals in the Lambeth Group, including the Annie McCall Maternity Hospital, became part of the newly formed South West London Group. The hospital closed in 1970.

Normansfield was founded in May 1868 by Dr John Haydon Langdon-Down and his wife, Mary, as a private home for the mentally handicapped, especially for the children of the upper classes whom they sought to educate and train to the full extent of their capabilities. The hospital opened in a recently built house in extensive grounds in Kingston Road, Teddington, close to Hampton Wick. By the end of the year 19 patients were in residence.

Under the Mental Deficiency Act of 1913, the main building became a certified house. The North Wing accommodated male patients while the South Wing was for women and children. Conifers and Trematon became approved homes, Conifers for higher grade women and Trematon for higher grade men. Education, occupational therapy, therapeutic work on the farm and in the kitchen garden and daily exercise in the hospital grounds was provided for the patients. Annual visits to the south coast were arranged for almost all the patients up to the Second World War.

The problems of maintaining a private establishment after the War and with the advent of the National Health Service proved overwhelming. Negotiations to sell the hospital to the Government resulted in the transfer of Normansfield to the North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board on 22 June 1951. The hospital came under the immediate control of Staines Group Hospital Management Committee. As a result of the 1974 reorganisation of the National Health Service Normansfield was managed from 1 April 1974 by Kingston and Richmond Area Health Authority and the South West Thames Regional Health Authority. By 1993 Normansfield Hospital had become part of the Richmond Twickenham and Roehampton Healthcare NHS Trust. The Hospital closed in 2000 and the site has since been redeveloped.

Saint John's Hill Workhouse was in use from the formation of Wandsworth and Clapham Poor Law Union in 1836. In 1870 an infirmary was constructed on an adjoining site. In the 1880's Wandsworth Board of Guardians built a new workhouse in Swaffield Road. From the opening of Swaffield Road Workhouse, all the buildings on the Saint John's Hill site were used as part of the infirmary. Saint John's Hill Infirmary was superseded as a general hospital by Saint James' Hospital, Balham, which was opened by Wandsworth Board of Guardians in 1911. From that date Saint John's was used mainly for the care of the chronic sick. In 1948 Saint John's Hospital became part of the National Health Service. It was administered by Battersea and Putney Group Hospital Management Committee and the South West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board. On 1 July 1964 the Battersea and Putney Group Hospital management Committee amalgamated with Tooting Bec Hospital Management Committee.

From 1 April 1972 to 31 March 1974 Saint John's Hospital formed part of the Westminster Hospital Group. As a result of the 1974 reorganisations of the National Health Service Saint John's became part of the Roehampton Health District of Merton, Sutton and Wandsworth Area Health Authority (Teaching). Between 1977 and 1978 Saint John's Day Hospital and Chest Clinic were built on the site. In 1982 Saint John's Hospital became the responsibility of Richmond, Twickenham and Roehampton Health Authority. In 1988, by then known as Saint John's Health Care Unit, it was transferred to Wandsworth Health Authority. The Hospital closed in 1990.

In the 1860's Dr Eustace Smith and Dr T C Kirby established the North-West London Free Dispensary for Sick Children in cramped quarters at 12 Bell Street, NW1. It was set up as a charity and would provide medical treatment for any child without notice or recommendation. The buildings on Bell Street rapidly became too small for the number of patients being treated. In the early 1880's seven thousand pounds was raised and used to purchase two houses on Paddington Green. These were converted to form a hospital and opened on 16 August 1883 as Paddington Green Children's Hospital.

However, there was a serious outbreak of diphtheria at the hospital. As the cause could not be traced the hospital was closed down and the buildings demolished. It was then discovered that there were two old cesspits nearby which had been the cause of the outbreak. A new hospital was built on the site; it was opened in 1895 and extended a year later. In 1911 a much improved out-patients department was opened.

In 1948 it became part of the newly formed National Health Service and was in the London (Teaching) Regional Health Board and under the administration of the Saint Mary's Hospital Management Committee. With NHS reorganisation in 1974 it became part of the North West London Regional Health Authority under the North West (Teaching) District Health Authority. In 1982 the District Health Authorities were redrawn and Paddington Green was now in Paddington and North Kensington. In 1987 the hospital closed when its facilities were transferred to the new Saint Mary's Hospital at Paddington.

The Mildmay Memorial Hospital, Newington Green Road, Mildmay Park, was opened in 1883 as the Mildmay Memorial Cottage Hospital. Its parent institution was the Mildmay Deaconess' Institute, which was also responsible for the Mildmay Mission Hospital whose records are kept at the Royal London Hospital Trust Archives Centre. In 1908 the Mildmay Memorial Hospital dropped the 'cottage' element of its name, and from this date until 1916 was a part of the Mildmay Medical Missions. After the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948 the hospital was administered by the North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board, and locally by the Archway Group Hospital Management Committee. The hospital closed in 1958.

The Maternity Nursing Association was started in 1897 by Miss Edith May. Miss May had trained as a midwife in 1892, and returned to her home parish of St Jude, Gray's Inn Road to practise. She united this parish with her father's parish of St Andrew, Holborn, to form the Maternity Nursing Mission, which was based in 2 flats in King's Cross Road. The mission opened on Mar 25 1897 but has since been called the Maternity Nursing Association. Its aim was to enable women to be attended in their own homes by fully qualified nurses, to receive pupils for training and to provide Maternity and Infant Welfare Centres. After the advent of the National Health Service in 1948 the association came under the control of the Northern Group Hospital Management Committee, but in 1954 was transferred to London County Council control.

In 1837 the newly formed Brentford Board of Guardians built a large workhouse on the east side of the Twickenham Road in Isleworth on what is now the northern part of the site of the West Middlesex University Hospital. In the 1880's on land to the south of the workhouse they constructed a school for 280 children formerly accommodated in the workhouse. This was opened in 1883 by Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke. The School was enlarged in 1901 and renamed Percy House Schools. From 1915 to 1918 it was used as a military hospital. By this time Percy House was no longer needed by the Guardians as a school since a change in policy meant children were now boarded out with foster parents or housed in scattered homes. The building was leased to HM Office of Works and was for many years used as a store for army records.

In 1894 Brentford Board of Guardians purchased from Lord Warkworth a house and grounds situated to the south east of Percy House adjoining Mill Platt. Together with other acquisitions this enlarged the total site to about 40 acres fronting Twickenham Road and Mill Platt. Brentford Union Infirmary was built between 1894 and 1896 on the northern part of the site, incorporating some of the original workhouse buildings. The rest of the workhouse was demolished. A new workhouse, known as Warkworth House, was built on the southern part of the site between 1900 and 1902. The original house, now called Little Warkworth House, was later used to accommodate the School of Nursing.

Under the Local Government Act of 1929 Brentford Board of Guardians was abolished. All its responsibilities including the infirmary, known since 1920 as West Middlesex Hospital, Warkworth House and Percy House were transferred in 1930 to the Middlesex County Council. The annual report of the County Medical Officer of Health for 1930 described West Middlesex Hospital as a general hospital of about 400 beds dealing largely with acute medical and surgical cases, but also with some chronic patients and maternity cases "of special difficulty". Adjoining the hospital was Warkworth House, "a large well-planned mixed institution with accommodation for some 800 persons." On 31 December 1930 it housed a total of 559 sick persons compared with 254 healthy inmates. 147 beds were reserved for cases of mental illness and epilepsy. The maternity block containing 16 beds formed part of the institution. Brentford Board of Guardians has started to build a modern maternity unit as part of the hospital. The Queen Mary Maternity Wing was completed in 1932 with accommodation for 30 cases. In 1935 the upper floor was adapted to provide an additional 32 beds. The Guardians had also begun to build an electrotherapeutic department. In 1933 Middlesex County Council appointed a pathologist and equipped a pathology laboratory.

By 1935 Middlesex County Council had regained possession of Percy House from HM Office of Works. Aged and ablebodied inmates were transferred to Percy House from Warkworth House, which then became part of West Middlesex hospital. On 1 April 1936 the hospital removed from the Poor Law and was appropriated for the reception and treatment of the sick under the Public Health Acts.

In 1948 West Middlesex Hospital became part of the National Health Service under the control of the North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board and South West Middlesex Hospital Management Committee. Percy House was retained by Middlesex County Council as "Part III" accommodation. It continued in use as an old people's home until 1975. Most of the buildings of Percy House were demolished in 1981.

With a total of 1,254 beds and buildings stretching a mile from one end of the site to the other, West Middlesex Hospital was one of the largest groups of hospital buildings in the country. It was much in need of modernisation and improvement. A new outpatients' and casualty department was built in 1952. In the early 1960's a scheme for the redevelopment of the hospital was prepared, but only the first phase, the construction of the Medical Department and a new boiler house, was completed.

In 1974 West Middlesex Hospital became part of Hounslow Health District of Ealing, Hammersmith and Hounslow Area Health Authority. In 1982 it was transferred to Hounslow and Spelthorne Health Authority. In about 1980 the hospital was renamed the West Middlesex University Hospital. In 1992 it became West Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust.

Saint Giles' Hospital opened in 1873 as Camberwell Workhouse Infirmary on a site adjoining the Havil Street Workhouses. Extensive new hospital buildings were erected between 1899 and 1903 by Camberwell Board of Guardians on part of the site adjoining Brunswick Square (now St Giles' Road) and Brunswick Road. The infirmary was renamed Saint Giles' Hospital in 1927. In 1930 Camberwell Board of Guardians ceased to exist and the hospital was transferred to the London County Council. By 1938 it had 810 beds.

In 1948 Saint Giles' Hospital became part of the National Health Service under the control of the South East Metropolitan Regional Health Board and Camberwell Hospital management Committee. On the reorganisation of the National Health Service in 1974, by now a 283 bed mainly acute hospital, it became the responsibility of King's Health District (Teaching) of Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham Area Health Authority. In 1982 it came under the control of Camberwell Health Authority based at King's College Hospital. On 1 April 1993 Saint Giles' Hospital became part of Optimum Health Services, an NHS Trust responsible for community health care services in Camberwell. Most of the hospital buildings were no longer required by the health service and many have been demolished. Saint Giles' Tower, a circular ward block opened in 1889, has been converted into flats. The remaining buildings were used for clinics, treatment centres and administration. In April 1999 the community health elements of Optimum Health Services were absorbed by a new trust, Community Health South London NHS Trust.

The Board of Guardians of Greenwich Union Workhouse applied for permission to expand the site towards the end of the 1890s but this was refused by the Local Government Board of Greenwich. Spicers Meadow was therefore bought in 1896 for five thousand and fifty pounds and plans were drawn up for Grove Park Workhouse to act as an overspill for the Greenwich Union Workhouse.

Thomas Dinwiddy was the architect, his plans were approved in 1897 (the plans were presented at the Paris International Exhibition in 1900 and won a Diploma of Merit). The foundation stone was laid in 1899.

The first Master of the Workhouse was Edward Tyler, working for an annual fee of one hundred and twenty pounds. The workhouse had room for 816 inmates whose work was to break up granite that was sold later to local councils. The workhouse, however, had been built in a remote site and the authorities found that they had difficulty recruiting inmates. The remaining story of the workhouse was an ever-changing one.

In 1914 the workhouse was used as a mobilisation / training centre by the Army Services Corps. In 1918 the workhouse was sold to the Metropolitan Asylums Board as a hospital for patients with tuberculosis (Grove Park Hospital). The Board soon decided that they did not want this facility and the buildings remained empty until 1926, at which time it once again became a hospital for patients with tuberculosis. A nurses' home was added in 1938. The hospital was bombed on 15th November 1940, two nurses were awarded the George Medal for rescuing patients from the debris. In 1945 the hospital became a centre for thoracic surgery. In 1977 Grove Park Hospital became a facility for patients with mental handicap.

Unfortunately, the buildings were not 'listed' by Greenwich or Lewisham authorities so that when the buildings were sold to a private contractor in 1992 much of the original construction was demolished. Only the frontage and main administration building remain (the road around the main administration building was named Thomas Dinwiddy Road, after the architect). The hospital site has now been redeveloped as a residential area.

The hospital opened on 1st December 1858 at 32 Soho Square as the Dental Hospital of London. The origins of all regulated and scientific dental practices can be found in the inception of the Dental Hospital and School. Before 1858 the dental profession had no regulation and anyone could set themselves up as a dental practitioner. This led to poor standards and a realisation of the need for proper training and an official qualification for dental practitioners. The Dental Hospital was established to achieve this and gained the backing of the Royal College of Surgeons to approve diplomas. The Dental School opened on 1st October 1859 to provide regulated, structured training for students in dental medicine. The hospital emphasised the need to regard dental medicine as connected to all other branches of medicine and to look at the wider picture when treating patients.

In 1874 the Dental Hospital moved to Nos. 40 and 41 Leicester Square the premises at 32 Soho Square having become too small and limited in resources for the number of patients being seen. The number of patients being treated had risen from 2,116 in 1859 to 22,627 in 1872. By 1882 they had reached 35,893 and there were once again complaints about a lack of space, these were appeased with the addition of the Tower House, adjoining the Hospital property and given to them by Sir Edwin Saunders. The addition of this extra space almost doubled the hospital's operating space.

The problem of space did not end there. The Dental Hospital was now in a position where their efforts to increase resources to meet rising demand resulted in even greater demand. By 1886 patient attendances had reached 43,745, a 12% increase on the previous year and nearly double that of 1874. This resulted in further overcrowding and a need for further expansion. An attempt was made to incorporate No. 42 Leicester Square into the Hospital, but these plans were held up by difficulties over fire regulations. It was not until 1888 that the extension was opened. This was only a temporary solution to a long-term problem, and the Dental hospital looked at obtaining a new site for the construction of a purpuse built hospital building.

By the end of 1893 the Board of Management had purchase Nos. 35, 35a and 36 Leicester Square, Nos. 22 and 23 Green Street, Nos. 1-5 Longs Court and had a deposit down for The Duke's Head, No. 37 Saint Martin's Street, all of which were contained within the same block. This had entailed an expenditure of £20,398, three-quarters of which had to be borrowed from the bank. Plans were in place for the purchase of the other buildings in the block and this was achieved by 1896, when plans were set in place to rebuild. The site was cleared in 1896 and the building work commenced in 1897. The Hospital moved into the new building in March 1901, and the old site was sold for £18,000. At this time the Hospital also received the patronage of King Edward VII and changed its name to the Royal Dental hospital. The Hospital at this time had developed the shape and organisation that were to stay in place for the next 75 years, but it had also gained a burden of debt that was not to be paid off until 1930.

In 1911 the Royal Dental Hospital of London School of Dental Surgery became a school of the University of London and as well as their own Licence in Dental Surgery a University Degree in Dental Surgery was offered. This development allowed the Dental School to become involved in many of the developments in dental surgery that occurred in the early twentieth century. However the burden of debt did also mean that the School and Hospital did not develop as rapidly during this period as some of their competitors. The technological development of the Hospital was slowed down by the financial pressures and by the internal politics of the teaching and practice of Dental Surgery at this time.

The Royal Dental Hospital and School stayed open throughout the Second World War. Most of the other specialist dental schools and departments had either closed down or moved out of London with their parent organisations, leaving the Royal Dental hospital as the only place for the public to get specialist dental care. The building was damaged by a land mine in October 1940 but was quickly repaired and back in service. Other difficulties due to reduce income and staff shortages meant that the referral of patients for consultant opinion was discouraged, but other wise a full service was offered.

The establishment of the NHS in 1948 saw the Royal Dental Hospital grouped with the Saint George's Hospital and Medical School, located on Hyde Park Corner and the Atkinson Morley in Wimbledon as the Saint George's Hospital Teaching Group. The School of Dental Surgery became a self-governing body, affiliated with Saint George's Hospital Medical School. The problems over space were still an issue. In 1957 plans to renovate the interior of the hospital to provide more space and better equipment were approved and the Hospital and School accomodation was reorganised, the School moved most of its non-clinical facilities into the newly acquired Ciro Club on Orange Street.

During the 1960's and 1970's the big issue was the transfer of the Dental School to Tooting with Saint George's Hospital and Medical School, which were to be rebuilt there. The Royal Dental Hospital was not at first happy with this and tried to delay the move, which was also held up by the Ministry of Health due to the finacial situation of the time. However Saint George's finally moved in 1975 and in 1976 the School of Dental Surgery's pre-clinical departments moved to Tooting. It was decided that the dental service required in Tooting was not that offered by the Royal Dental Hospital and the 1980's were spent preparing of the closure of the Hospital. The Dental School was amalgamated with the United Medical School of Guy's and Saint Thomas' Hospitals and the remaining dental services transferred to Tooting. The Royal Dental Hospital closed in 1985 and the site in Leicester Square was developed as the Hampshire Hotel.

The hospital opened on 1st December 1858 at 32 Soho Square as the Dental Hospital of London. The origins of all regulated and scientific dental practices can be found in the inception of the Dental Hospital and School. Before 1858 the dental profession had no regulation and anyone could set themselves up as a dental practitioner. This led to poor standards and a realisation of the need for proper training and an official qualification for dental practitioners. The Dental Hospital was established to achieve this and gained the backing of the Royal College of Surgeons to approve diplomas. The Dental School opened on 1st October 1859 to provide regulated, structured training for students in dental medicine. The hospital emphasised the need to regard dental medicine as connected to all other branches of medicine and to look at the wider picture when treating patients.

In 1874 the Dental Hospital moved to Nos. 40 and 41 Leicester Square the premises at 32 Soho Square having become too small and limited in resources for the number of patients being seen. The number of patients being treated had risen from 2,116 in 1859 to 22,627 in 1872. By 1882 they had reached 35,893 and there were once again complaints about a lack of space, these were appeased with the addition of the Tower House, adjoining the Hospital property and given to them by Sir Edwin Saunders. The addition of this extra space almost doubled the hospital's operating space. The problem of space did not end there. The Dental Hospital was now in a position where their efforts to increase resources to meet rising demand resulted in even greater demand. By 1886 patient attendances had reached 43,745, a 12% increase on the previous year and nearly double that of 1874. This resulted in further overcrowding and a need for further expansion. An attempt was made to incorporate No. 42 Leicester Square into the Hospital, but these plans were held up by difficulties over fire regulations. It was not until 1888 that the extension was opened. This was only a temporary solution to a long-term problem, and the Dental hospital looked at obtaining a new site for the construction of a purpuse built hospital building. By the end of 1893 the Board of Management had purchase Nos. 35, 35a and 36 Leicester Square, Nos. 22 and 23 Green Street, Nos. 1-5 Longs Court and had a deposit down for The Duke's Head, No. 37 Saint Martin's Street, all of which were contained within the same block. This had entailed an expenditure of £20,398, three-quarters of which had to be borrowed from the bank. Plans were in place for the purchase of the other buildings in the block and this was achieved by 1896, when plans were set in place to rebuild. The site was cleared in 1896 and the building work commenced in 1897. The Hospital moved into the new building in March 1901, and the old site was sold for £18,000. At this time the Hospital also received the patronage of King Edward VII and changed its name to the Royal Dental hospital. The Hospital at this time had developed the shape and organisation that were to stay in place for the next 75 years, but it had also gained a burden of debt that was not to be paid off until 1930.

In 1911 the Royal Dental Hospital of London School of Dental Surgery became a school of the University of London and as well as their own Licence in Dental Surgery a University Degree in Dental Surgery was offered. This development allowed the Dental School to become involved in many of the developments in dental surgery that occurred in the early twentieth century. However the burden of debt did also mean that the School and Hospital did not develop as rapidly during this period as some of their competitors. The technological development of the Hospital was slowed down by the financial pressures and by the internal politics of the teaching and practice of Dental Surgery at this time.

The Royal Dental Hospital and School stayed open throughout the Second World War. Most of the other specialist dental schools and departments had either closed down or moved out of London with their parent organisations, leaving the Royal Dental hospital as the only place for the public to get specialist dental care. The building was damaged by a land mine in October 1940 but was quickly repaired and back in service. Other difficulties due to reduce income and staff shortages meant that the referral of patients for consultant opinion was discouraged, but other wise a full service was offered. The establishment of the NHS in 1948 saw the Royal Dental Hospital grouped with the Saint George's Hospital and Medical School, located on Hyde Park Corner and the Atkinson Morley in Wimbledon as the Saint George's Hospital Teaching Group. The School of Dental Surgery became a self-governing body, affiliated with Saint George's Hospital Medical School. The problems over space were still an issue. In 1957 plans to renovate the interior of the hospital to provide more space and better equipment were approved and the Hospital and School accomodation was reorganised, the School moved most of its non-clinical facilities into the newly acquired Ciro Club on Orange Street.

During the 1960's and 1970's the big issue was the transfer of the Dental School to Tooting with Saint George's Hospital and Medical School, which were to be rebuilt there. The Royal Dental Hospital was not at first happy with this and tried to delay the move, which was also held up by the Ministry of Health due to the finacial situation of the time. However Saint George's finally moved in 1975 and in 1976 the School of Dental Surgery's pre-clinical departments moved to Tooting. It was decided that the dental service required in Tooting was not that offered by the Royal Dental Hospital and the 1980's were spent preparing of the closure of the Hospital. The Dental School was amalgamated with the United Medical School of Guy's and Saint Thomas' Hospitals and the remaining dental services transferred to Tooting. The Royal Dental Hospital closed in 1985 and the site in Leicester Square was developed as the Hampshire Hotel.