Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
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Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
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Description area
Dates of existence
History
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.