Chelsea Hospital for Women Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital xx Queen Charlotte's Lying-in Hospital and Midwifery Training School xx Queen Charlotte's Maternity Hospital and Midwifery Training School

Chelsea Hospital for Women Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital xx Queen Charlotte's Lying-in Hospital and Midwifery Training School xx Queen Charlotte's Maternity Hospital and Midwifery Training School

Chelsea Hospital for Women was founded in 1871 for the treatment 'of diseases peculiar to women'. The Hospital was initially situated at 178 King's Road, Chelsea, where it had eight beds for inpatients. Two of its founders, Dr Thomas Chambers and Dr James Aveling, became the first physicians to the hospital. The Duchess of Albany opened a new and larger hospital containing 63 beds, situated in Fulham Road, in 1883. This was followed in 1890-1891 by the building of a convalescent home at St Leonard's-on-Sea. In 1911 Earl Cadogan gave a site in Arthur Street, Chelsea for a new and larger hospital. This opened on 11 July 1916 with 95 beds. The nurses' home was completed in 1924. Despite suffering damage in an air raid in April 1941, Chelsea Hospital came through the War relatively unscathed. In 1948 it became part of the National Health Service and was designated a teaching hospital. It shared a Board of Governors with Queen Charlotte's Maternity Hospital, Hammersmith. In 1988 the former Chelsea Hospital for Women in Dovehouse Street ceased to be used for hospital purposes. All functions were transferred to the Queen Charlotte's site in Goldhawk Road.

In 1739 Sir Richard Manningham, the leading man-midwife of his day, established some lying-in wards in a house adjoining his residence in Jermyn Street. This was the first general lying-in hospital in Britain. In 1752 the hospital moved to Saint Marylebone became known as the General Lying-In Hospital and was established as a teaching hospital. In 1929 an isolation hospital for women suffering from puerperal fever was established on Goldhawk Road, Hammersmith. It was intended that this become part of an enlarged hospital with the Queen's Lying-In Hospital, called Queen Charlotte's Maternity Hospital. The main hospital building were constructed between 1937 and 1939 and in 1940 the Queen's Lying-In Hospital moved in from Marylebone. After the end of the Second World War Queen Charlotte's started negotiations with the Chelsea Hospital for Women with the object of forming a combined school for teaching obstetrics and gynaecology to postgraduate students. This co-operation was recognised under the newly formed National Health Service through the creation of Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital Management Committee. The hospitals were also in the separate Regional Hospital Board for London Teaching hospitals.

With NHS reorganisation in 1974 Queen Charlotte's became part of the Postgraduate Teaching Regional Health Authority, further recognition of the teaching work done by the hospital. It was in a District Health Authority of its own. In 1982 further reorganisation linked Queen Charlotte's and Hammersmith Hospital's under one Regional Health Authority. This followed the plans, in 1976, to move Queen Charlotte's to the Hammersmith Hospital site on Du Cane Road. In 1988 the long connections between the Chelsea Hospital for Women and Queen Charlotte's were consolidated through the merger of the two hospitals. Since 1994 Queen Charlotte's and the Hammersmith Hospital have formed the Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust. Queen Charlotte's Hospital relocated to the Hammersmith Hospital site at the end of 2000.