Evelina Children's Hospital x Evelina Hospital for Sick Children , 1869-c.1955

Evelina Children's Hospital x Evelina Hospital for Sick Children , 1869-c.1955

The Evelina Hospital for Sick Children was founded by Baron Ferdinand James Anselm de Rothschild in 1869. It was named after Baroness de Rothschild, who had died in childbirth in 1866. The Hospital was formally opened on Tuesday June 15 1869. There was to be an experimental period when there were only 30 beds. In the second year in which it was open, the Hospital began to charge a penny for each bottle of medicine issued and to recruit trainee nurses. In 1871 support from the public was requested and subscriptions and donations consequently rose, allowing the number of cots to be increased to 40 in 1872, and to 56 by 1875. Baron de Rothschild decided in 1892 that the Hospital should be a public institution. The Committee of Management was enlarged to 18 governors. Baron de Rothschild died in 1898.

A new wing was opened in 1907; but a new building begun in 1939, including a new Outpatient department, was postponed when war broke out. The Evelina also became an approved training school for State Registered Nurses after the Nurses' Registration Act 1919. The Evelina was closed down in 1976 and moved into the newly-built Guy's Tower as the new Children's department.