St George's Hospital was a hospital on Suttons Lane in

Hornchurch Hornchurch is a suburban town in East London in the London Borough of Havering. It is located east-northeast of Charing Cross. It comprises a number of shopping streets and a large residential area. It historically formed a large ancient par ...

in the

London Borough of Havering The London Borough of Havering () in East London, England, forms part of Outer London. It has a population of 259,552 inhabitants; the principal town is Romford, while other communities include Hornchurch, Upminster, Collier Row and Rainham, Lo ...

, in northeast

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England. It opened in 1938 and closed in October 2012.

History

Initial use

The need for the building followed the

Local Government Act 1929 The Local Government Act 1929 ( 19 & 20 Geo. 5. c. 17) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made changes to the Poor Law and local government in England and Wales. The act abolished the system of poor law unions in England ...

and the transfer of welfare functions from poor law unions to county and county borough councils. It was built by Essex County Council and was designed by John Stuart who held the position of County Architect from 1920 to 1945. The land was purchased from

New College, Oxford New College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by Bishop William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as New College's feeder school, New College was one of the first col ...

and development began in 1933. Building work was undertaken by H. Arnold and Sons and the foundation stone was dated 1935. The opening ceremony was held in 1938 and it was named Suttons Institution. The placename 'Suttons' was an old manor in Hornchurch, believed to refer to the location south of the main settlement. The initial primary use was as a home for the elderly, with provision for children, nursing mothers and psychiatric care.

World War II

It was used as residential accommodation for airmen based at nearby

RAF Hornchurch Royal Air Force Hornchurch, or more simply RAF Hornchurch, is a former Royal Air Force List of former Royal Air Force stations, sector station in the parish of Hornchurch, Essex (now the London Borough of Havering in Greater London), located to ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. It was also an auxiliary civilian facility to Oldchurch Hospital as part of the

Emergency Hospital Service During Home front during World War II, World War II, a centralised state-run Emergency Hospital Service was established in the United Kingdom.Paul Addison, "The Road to 1945", Jonathan Cape, 1975, pp. 178–81. It employed doctors and nurses to ca ...

and formed part of Sector 1 of the London system.

National Health Service

Following the National Health Service Act 1946 it joined the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

as St George's Hospital under the control of the Romford Group Hospital Management Committee in 1948.

Legionella ''Legionella'' is a genus of gram-negative bacteria, gram-negative bacteria that can be seen using a silver stain or grown in a special media that contains cysteine, an amino acid. It is known to cause legionellosis (all illnesses caused by ''Legi ...

was found in the hospital's water system in October 2012; the patients were transferred to other hospitals and St George's Hospital closed.

Legacy

Plans are in place for a new St George's Health and Wellbeing Hub on part of the site, with the remaining land converted to a housing development called St George's Park. The RAF Hornchurch Heritage Centre is located in a former hospital building.

References