Middlesex Districts Joint Smallpox Hospital Board

In 1740 Dr Robert Poole was instrumental in creating a charity for the relief of poor persons suffering from smallpox. In 1746 subscriptions were raised for erecting a hospital at Cold Bath Fields, Clerkenwell, on the site of a house that was already used by the charity for the treatment of infected persons.

The trustees had owned land in Saint Pancras since 1765, when they had moved the inoculation hospital there from a house in Old Street. In 1793-1794 the hospital was rebuilt there and subsequently received patients from the Cold Bath Fields Hospital. By 1850 the land in Saint Pancras was redeveloped as Kings Cross Station and the hospital moved to a site on Highgate Hill.

In 1896 the hospital made its final move to Clare Hall, South Mimms, Middlesex. At this time the hospital was still privately run by a Board of Management and administered by a house committee. In 1905, the councils of 14 districts of the County of Middlesex combined to form a Joint Board, which purchased Clare Hall Hospital. In 1907 the Joint Board took over the administration of the hospital.

In May 1911, the Local Government Board made an order, permitting the admission to Clare Hall of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis. Under a special order of the Minister of Health in 1928, the Hospital became a Middlesex County Council Institution. This came into effect on 1 April 1929 and the Joint Board was dissolved.

During the Second World War as part of the Emergency Medical Service, a hutted hospital was built in the grounds. By December 1942, all 540 beds in the hospital were devoted to tuberculosis patients.

In 1948 on creation of the National Health Service, the hospital was transferred to the North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board. In 1949 non-tuberculosis patients were admitted for treatment. The hospital was closed in 1975.