St Helier Hospital (full title: ''St Helier Hospital and Queen Mary's Hospital for Children'') in the

London Borough of Sutton The London Borough of Sutton () is a London borough in south-west London, England and forms part of Outer London. It covers an area of and is the 80th largest local authority in England by population. It borders the London Borough of Croydon to ...

is run by St George's, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals and Health Group along with Epsom Hospital. It is located next to the large St Helier council estate and close to the major intersection known as Rosehill. The hospital offers a full range of hospital services including a 24-hour accident and emergency department. The site is also home to the South West Renal and Transplantation Service and the Queen Mary's Hospital for Children, a dedicated children's hospital. St Helier Hospital is a major teaching hospital for

St George's, University of London St George's, University of London (legally St George's Hospital Medical School, informally St George's or SGUL), is a University located in Tooting in South London and is a constituent college of the University of London. St George's has its o ...

, and is a main teaching site for medical degrees.

History

The hospital was commissioned in 1934 when Surrey County Council acquired a 999-year lease of 10 acres of land on the St Helier council estate which had been named in honour of

Mary Jeune, Baroness St Helier Susan Elizabeth Mary Jeune, Baroness St Helier, (née Mackenzie, previously Stanley; 18 May 1845 – 25 January 1931) was a London County Council alderman and the wife of Francis Jeune, 1st Baron St Helier. Background Susan Elizabeth Mary St ...

, a prominent

alderman An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members them ...

on the

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...

. Queen Mary laid the foundation stone for the new hospital on 26 March 1938. It was designed by Saxon Snell & Phillips, who were chosen for their experience in hospital design, in the thirties modernist style. It received its first patients in February 1941 during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Less than a month later, the hospital was damaged in a bombing raid by a

parachute mine A parachute mine is a naval mine dropped from an aircraft by parachute. They were mostly used in the Second World War by the Luftwaffe and initially by the Royal Air Force (RAF) Bomber Command. Frequently, they were dropped on land targets. ...

John Major Sir John Major (born 29 March 1943) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997, and as Member of Parliament (MP) for Huntingdon, formerly Hunting ...

, the former Prime Minister was born in the hospital in 1943. Further damage was caused in later raids and the hospital was struck by two flying bombs in June 1944. St Helier Hospital remained functional throughout the War and was painted green to make it less visible to German bombers in the latter years of the war. 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 " ...

in 1948. The

Queen Mother A queen mother is a former queen, often a queen dowager, who is the mother of the reigning monarch. The term has been used in English since the early 1560s. It arises in hereditary monarchies in Europe and is also used to describe a number of ...

visited the hospital in 1963, during the hospital's jubilee year and, in 1987, Diana Princess of Wales opened the new maternity unit. Services were transferred from Queen Mary's Hospital for Children in 1993. St Helier Hospital came under the management of the Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust in 1999. In November 2013, as part of the Better Services Better Value Review of NHS services in London, the Trust proposed the downgrading of the maternity and Accident and Emergency Departments.

Services

The main building is divided into three blocks: A, B and C. The other buildings are: * The pathology block (labelled D) which also contains the genitourinary medicine clinic * The Women's Health Block (labelled E) (which contains the maternity and gynaecology wards, gynaecology clinics and delivery suite) * Ferguson House (labelled F) (contains some outpatient clinics, administration departments and undergraduate teaching suite) * Queen Mary's Hospital for Children (labelled J) * The renal block (labelled K)

Transport links

London Buses London Buses is the subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL) that manages most bus services in London, England. It was formed following the Greater London Authority Act 1999 that transferred control of London Regional Transport (LRT) bus ...

routes

151 Year 151 (CLI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Condianus and Valerius (or, less frequently, year 904 ''Ab urbe cond ...

157 Year 157 ( CLVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Civica and Aquillus (or, less frequently, year 910 ''Ab urbe condit ...

, S1 and S4 stop outside the hospital. The nearest

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The U ...

station is Morden Underground station, from which there are frequent buses to the hospital via Rose Hill (about 5 minutes walk from the hospital). The nearest

National Rail National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the ...

station is St Helier station which is slightly less than one mile from the hospital (about a 15-minute walk), although this is infrequently served (only 1 train every 30 minutes off-peak).

Notable births

Elliot Colburn Elliot Haydn George Colburn (born 6 August 1992) is a British Conservative Party politician. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Carshalton and Wallington since the 2019 general election. Colburn also served as councillor for the C ...

– MP for Carshalton and Wallington. *

– Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1990–1997.

References

External links

St Helier Hospital site map
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Helier Hospital NHS hospitals in London Hospitals established in 1938 Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Sutton