Royal Waterloo Hospital for Children and Women

Royal Waterloo Hospital for Children and Women
Geography
Location Waterloo Road, London, England
Organisation
Care system Joined NHS in 1948
Affiliated university Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
Services
Emergency department No
Beds ~200 in 1903
History
Founded 1816 as Universal Dispensary for Children
Closed 27 July 1976
Links
Lists Hospitals in England

The Royal Waterloo Hospital for Children and Women was a hospital located on the corner of Waterloo Bridge Road and Stamford Street near Waterloo Station in London, England.[1]

History

The hospital was founded in 1816 as the Universal Dispensary for Children.[2] This was changed in 1852 to the Royal Infirmary for Children and Women.[3] The hospital underwent its final name change to the Royal Waterloo Hospital for Children and Women in 1875.[4]

In an 1856 review of the hospital system in London, the British Journal of Homeopathy noted the serious shortage of hospital beds for children in London:

Again, London possesses but one hospital (Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street), where sick children are received, containing the insignificant number of 30 beds. Paris has a large hospital (Enfants Malades), containing 600 beds for sick children. The Royal Infirmary for Children, Waterloo Bridge Road, is said to be capable, with a few alterations, of containing 80 beds; but we have no reason to suppose that it does yet contain any; and as its funds are stated to be very limited, there seems small hopes of its taking in sick children for the present.[5]

By the year of the hospital's rebuilding in 1903 the concerns over bed space remained: an article in the British Medical Journal raised the concern that the Waterloo site left little room for extension.[6]

Joining the NHS and closure

The hospital joined the National Health Service in 1948 as part of the nearby St Thomas' Hospital group of hospitals (now Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust). The Royal Waterloo Hospital closed on the 27 July 1976.[7] In 1981 the building was sold and became the central London campus of Schiller International University. In 2011, Schiller International University moved out of the building and sold it to University of Notre Dame of South Bend, Indiana, USA where it was renovated and converted into dormitories.

Hospital buildings and locations

In its first incarnation the hospital was located at St Andrew's Hill, in the now demolished Doctor's Commons in the City of London.[8] Between 1903-04 premises were built at a cost of £45,000 to house an outpatients' department and inpatient accommodation of 90 beds at the corner of Waterloo Bridge Road and Stamford Street near Waterloo Station.[9] This building was awarded Grade II listed status by English Heritage in 1980.[3] The hospital remained at this location until its closure in 1976. In September 1981 the building was renovated and became for three decades the central London campus of Schiller International University. The hospital building was renamed Royal Waterloo House, 51-55 Waterloo Road, London SE1 8TX. [See The World of Learning, Section Six: American Colleges in the UK, p. 139 (1988 edition), et al.] In 2010 Royal Waterloo House was sold to another American university, the University of Notre Dame, who further adapted the building as a student residence for students at their London campus.

Notable staff

See also

References

  1. ↑ ‘Seventy-Eighth Annual Meeting of the British Medical Association, London, July, 1910’, The British Medical Journal, Vol. 1, No. 2568 (1910) <http://www.jstor.org/stable/25289985> [accessed 1 March 2011] 703-706, p. 705.
  2. ↑ Franklin, Alfred. Letter written to the British Medical Journal 'Correspondence: Smallpox Vaccination' The British Medical Journal, Vol. 1, No. 5345 (1963) <http://www.jstor.org/stable/20381141> [accessed 1 March 2011] p. 1609.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Royal Waterloo Hospital, English Heritage, retrieved 2011-03-13
  4. ↑ AIM25, 'Royal Waterloo Hospital' <http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/vcdf/detail?inst_id=118&coll_id=11815> [accessed 12 March 2011] (para. 2 of 7).
  5. ↑ British Journal of Homeopathy 'The Hospital System of London: 1856' in 'Knowsley Pamphlet Collection, (1856)', University of Liverpool <http://www.jstor.org/stable/60101166> [accessed 1 March 2011] 1-53, p. 40.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 The Royal Waterloo Hospital For Children And Women, The British Medical Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2235 [accessed 1 March 2011] 1167-1168, p.1167.
  7. ↑ AIM25, 'Royal Waterloo Hospital', <http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/vcdf/detail?inst_id=118&coll_id=11815> [accessed 12 March 2011] (para. 2 of 7).
  8. ↑ AIM25, 'Royal Waterloo Hospital' <http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/vcdf/detail?inst_id=118&coll_id=11815> [accessed 12 March 2011] (para. 1 of 7).
  9. ↑ ‘Seventy-Eighth Annual Meeting of the British Medical Association, London, July, 1910’, The British Medical Journal, Vol. 1, No. 2568 (1910) <http://www.jstor.org/stable/25289985> [accessed 1 March 2011] 703-706, p. 705.

External links

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