The Peace Hospice is a health facility caring for people with a life-limiting or terminal illness, which is funded by public donations, situated on Rickmansworth Road,

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

. It is a locally

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

The facility has its origins in the Watford and District Peace Memorial Hospital which was commissioned to commemorate the lives of local people who died in the First World War. The foundation stone was laid by the Countess of Clarendon in July 1923. The building was designed by Wallace Marchment in the

Neo-Classical style Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing style ...

and was opened by Princess Mary in June 1925. The

Watford Peace Memorial Watford Peace Memorial is a war memorial now located outside the Town Hall in Watford, Hertfordshire, England. It comprises three bronze sculptures of nude males on a white Portland stone base. The sculptor was Mary Pownall Bromet, a student o ...

was erected outside the hospital in 1928. It joined the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

as the Watford Peace Memorial Hospital in 1948 and became the Peace Memorial Wing of

Watford General Hospital Watford General Hospital is a 521-bed acute District General Hospital situated on Vicarage Road, Watford, Hertfordshire. Together with Hemel Hempstead Hospital and St Albans City Hospital, it is operated by West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust ...

in 1965. After services transferred to Watford General Hospital Peace Memorial Wing closed in 1985. Following the refurbishment of the main administration block of the old hospital, a project funded by public donations, the facility was officially reopened as the Peace Hospice by

Princess Michael of Kent Princess Michael of Kent (born Baroness Marie-Christine Anna Agnes Hedwig Ida von Reibnitz, 15 January 1945) is a member of the British royal family of German, Austrian, Czech and Hungarian descent. She is married to Prince Michael of Kent, ...

in 1996. A new inpatient unit was completed in 2000. In 2010 the

Hardcore punk Hardcore punk (also known as simply hardcore) is a punk rock music genre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots can be traced to earlier punk ...

band

Gallows A gallows (or scaffold) is a frame or elevated beam, typically wooden, from which objects can be suspended (i.e., hung) or "weighed". Gallows were thus widely used to suspend public weighing scales for large and heavy objects such as sacks ...

, whose performers come from Watford and

Hemel Hempstead Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of London, which is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500. Developed after the Second World War as a ne ...

, put on a performance at the

Watford Colosseum Watford Colosseum is an entertainment venue in Watford, Hertfordshire, England. Established in 1938, as the Assembly Rooms for Watford Town Hall, the complex was extended in 2011 with improvements which included new meeting spaces, a new restaurant ...

which raised funds for the Peace Hospice.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official site
Hospitals in Hertfordshire Watford Watford Peace Memorial Hospital