Royal Masonic Hospital

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search
Royal Masonic Hospital
C & C Alpha Group
Royal Masonic Hospital
Royal Masonic Hospital
Geography
Location London, England, United Kingdom
Coordinates Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Organisation
Affiliated university None
Patron None
Services
Emergency department No Accident & Emergency
Helipad No
History
Founded 1920
Closed 2006
Links
Lists Hospitals in England

The Royal Masonic Hospital was a hospital in the Ravenscourt Park area of Hammersmith, west London, built and opened in 1933.[1] The grade II* listed building[2] became the Ravenscourt Park Hospital in 2002, but this closed in 2006.[3] As of 2012 the building is being redeveloped by the C & C Alpha Group to house the London International Hospital (LIH), which will specialise in cancer and diseases of the heart and brain.[4][5]

Hospital history

The Freemasons' War Hospital, was opened by London Freemasons during World War I 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.[1]

The hospital treated over 8,600 servicemen during World War II, and remained independent when the National Health Service was founded in 1948.[1] 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.[2] 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.[1][6]

The hospital reopened in 2002 as the Ravenscourt Park Hospital within the NHS, but closed again in 2006.[3]

The London International Hospital, a 150-bed private hospital, is planned to open in the refurbished building in 2014.[7]

Building

The architect was Thomas S. Tait, and the building was awarded the RIBA Gold Medal for the best building of the year in 1933.[8] 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.[2] The adjacent nurses' home is grade II listed.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. A personal website which includes 17 photos of the hospital