The Royal Masonic Hospital was a hospital in the
Ravenscourt Park
Ravenscourt Park or RCP is an public park and garden located in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, England. It is one of the Borough's flagship parks, having won a Green Flag Award. Stamford Brook and Ravenscourt Park tube stations ar ...
area of
Hammersmith
Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.
...
, west London, built and opened in 1933.
The Grade II*
listed building became the Ravenscourt Park Hospital in 2002, but this closed in 2006.
As of May 2015 the hospital was expected to reopen in 2017 as the 150-bed London International Hospital, a centre for medical tourism.
However, London International Hospital Limited commenced winding up proceedings on 30 March 2017, and was dissolved on 28 March 2018, owing £15 million to the
Imperial College Healthcare Trust.
History
The Freemasons' War Hospital, was opened by London
Freemasons
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
with support from lodges in
Gloucestershire (Royal York Lodge,
Stroud
Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021.
Below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the Five ...
) and around England during the
First World War in Fulham Road, London, in the premises of the former
Chelsea Hospital for Women, and treated over 4,000 servicemen by the end of the war. In 1920 it opened as the Freemason's Hospital and Nursing Home, but outgrew its premises. The new hospital was opened by
King George V and
Queen Mary, and the king gave permission for the hospital to be renamed as the Royal Masonic Hospital.
The hospital was re-built in 1933. The architect was
Thomas S. Tait, and the building was awarded the
RIBA Gold Medal for the best building of the year in 1933. The red-brick building "combines straight lines with spectacular curved balconies", and has large concrete relief figures of
Hebe and
Aesculapius by sculptor
Gilbert Bayes
Gilbert William Bayes (4 April 1872 – 10 July 1953) was an English sculptor. His art works varied in scale from medals to large architectural clocks, monuments and equestrian statues and he was also a designer of some note, creating chess piec ...
.
The adjacent nurses' home is grade II listed. It was re-opened by King George V.
The hospital treated over 8,600 servicemen during the
Second World War (including fighter pilots
Eric Lock
Eric Stanley Lock, (19 April 1919 – 3 August 1941) was a British Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter pilot and flying ace of the Second World War.
Born in Shrewsbury in 1919, Lock had his first experience of flying as a teenager. In the late 1930s ...
and
Richard Hillary, who describes it in his book ''The Last Enemy'') and remained independent when the
National Health Service was founded in 1948.
The Wakefield Wing, with new physiotherapy and pathology departments, accommodation for nurses, and a chapel, was opened in 1958, and a new surgical wing in 1976.
From 1977 it began to accept paying non-Mason patients, but financial pressures led to its closure and acquisition in 1992 by the Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust, not without controversy.
The hospital reopened in 2002 as the Ravenscourt Park Hospital within the NHS, but closed again in 2006.
In 2012 it was stated that the building was being redeveloped by the C & C Alpha Group to house the London International Hospital, which would specialise in cancer and diseases of the heart and brain. In 2015 it was acquired by
VPS Healthcare
VPS Healthcare is a multinational healthcare group headquartered at Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The group was founded in 2007 by Indian-born businessman Shamsheer Vayalil. The healthcare group now runs 23 hospitals and about 125 medical cent ...
who proposed to reopen it as the 150-bed London International Hospital in 2017, which would be "the centre for tourists to travel to the capital city for state-of-the-art medical care".
London International Hospital Limited terminated the remaining site service contracts and returned the site to Imperial College Healthcare Trust on 4 July 2016; it commenced winding up proceedings on 30 March 2017, and was dissolved on 28 March 2018, owing £15 million to the Trust.
See also
* Epworth Freemasons Hospital
* Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, Dallas, Texas, USA
* Shriners Hospital for Children – Canada
References
External links
*
*
* ''A personal website which includes 17 photos of the hospital''
{{commons category, Royal Masonic Hospital
Hospital buildings completed in 1933
Masonic buildings in the United Kingdom
Grade II* listed buildings in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham
Grade II* listed hospital buildings
Defunct hospitals in London