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Description area
Dates of existence
History
Coppetts Wood Hospital was an Isolation Hospital in Muswell Hill, North London, built in 1889 by the Hornsey Local Board of Health. It originally took patients from Hornsey alone, suffering from a variety of infectious fevers, but by the 1920s was also treating patients from Finchley and Wood Green. During World War Two it was used as temporary accommodation for St Bartholemew's Hospital, and a few patient case notes survive from this time. After the institution of the National Health Service in 1948 Coppetts Wood became part of the Northern Group of Hospitals, and joined the Royal Free Group in 1968.
In 1955, after being threatened with closure, Coppetts Wood started a programme of modernisation in the wake of traditional fevers becoming increasingly curable, and remained at the forefront of research and cutting edge treatment into infectious diseases throughout its history, eventually gaining renown for its high-security unit used in treating diseases such as rabies and lassa fever.
In 1963, the infectious disease beds at the Lawn Road Branch of the Royal Free Hospital were transferred to Coppetts Wood and the two infectious disease services were amalgamated. Coppetts Wood finally closed in 2000, when all its services except the high-security unit were transferred to the Royal Free. The high-security unit is to be kept open and staffed by Royal Free staff as the need arises.