North-West London Hospital

The North-West London Hospital (NWLH) was opened in 1878 in Kentish Town Road, founded by the Misses Learmonth for the benefit of the working classes of this densely populated area. It was unusual, for its time, in offering a designated childrens' ward. A new wing was added six years later, but by 1890 the hospital was facing serious financial difficulties. Finally, in 1907, when work on the new building of the Hampstead General Hospital (formerly Hampstead Home Hospital and Nursing Institute) was in jeopardy owing to lack of funds, the King's Fund suggested that these two hospitals merge, and on that condition provided funds for the project. Thereafter the in-patients were treated in the new Hampstead General on Haverstock Hill and outpatients at the Camden site. In 1912 a new outpatients department was built at Bayham Street, in the house in which Charles Dickens had lived as a boy, replacing the NWLH once and for all. However, the name lived on in the official title of the joint institution "The Hampstead General and North-West London Hospital" until 1948.
All surviving record series from the merged Hampstead General Hospital continue from record series of the Hampstead Home Hospital and Nursing Institute; records in this collection therefore survive solely from the NWLH up to 1908.