NORTH WESTERN HOSPITAL, HAMPSTEAD

<span class="wrapper"><p>For records relating to the building and management of the hospital 1868-1930 see the archives of the Metropolitan Asylums Board, especially the minutes of the Hampstead Asylum Committee 1874-1876 (ref MAB 801, 803), the minutes and presented papers of the North Western Hospital Sub-Committee 1868-1930 (ref MAB 1013-1038) and reports and papers 1874-1914 (ref MAB 2411-2422). From 1930 to 1948 the hospital was administered by the London County Council Central Public Health Committee, later the L.C.C. Hospitals and Medical Services Committee. For minutes of the North Western Hospital Sub-Committee 1930-1948 see LCC/MIN/2573-2575. For an architect's plan and survey of the hospital c.1929 see LCC/AR/CB/3/3. For files on the laboratory, the use of a private road, and air raid damage see LCC/PH/HOSP/3/63-65.</p> <p>Post 1948 records of the North Western Hospital and nursing records 1887-1949 are now held at the Royal Free Hospital Archives Centre in the care of the Archives Consultant, Royal Free Hospital, Pond Street, London NW3 2QG.</p></span>

• <corpname>Hampstead Hospital, 1870-1881</corpname>
• <corpname>North Western Hospital, Hampstead, 1881-1948</corpname>

The registers are closed to public consultation for 100 years.

Archives transferred to the Greater London Record Office from Coppetts Wood Hospital, Muswell Hill on 11 January 1993 (Acc 3128)

The Metropolitan Asylums Board was established in 1867 and soon acquired three sites for infectious diseases hospitals. One of these was near Pond Street, Hampstead, where on 25 January 1870 Hampstead Hospital opened in temporary buildings for the reception of patients suffering from relapsing fever. Nurses were provided by the Anglican Sisters of St Margaret, East Grinstead. The hospital closed when this epidemic subsided, but was reopened on 1 December 1870 to admit patients suffering from a particularly virulent form of small pox which was raging through London. This epidemic had passed by 1873. From 1873 to 1876 Hampstead Hospital was used for the accommodation of mentally handicapped children until the Darenth Schools in Kent were opened by the M.A.B. Meanwhile permanent smallpox and fever hospitals were being built on the Hampstead site despite vigorous local opposition.

In the autumn of 1876 another epidemic necessitated the use of Hampstead Hospital for the treatment of smallpox again. Hampstead residents brought a series of expensive law suits against the M.A.B. to force it to close the hospital or severely restrict its use for smallpox or fever patients. As a result, a Royal Commission appointed to consider these problems in 1881 recommended that smallpox patients should be treated on hospital ships or adjoining river banks on isolated parts of the River Thames. Hampstead Hospital (renamed the North Western Hospital) now became entirely a fever hospital, treating mainly cases of diphtheria and scarlet fever. The M.A.B. infectious diseases hospitals were gradually removed from the provisions of the Poor Law, until after 1 January 1892 every citizen of London suffering from infectious disease was legally entitled to admission to an MAB hospital for treatment free of charge.

In 1948 the North Western Hospital became part of the National Health Service as one of the Royal Free Hospital Group of teaching hospitals. For a report on the North Western Hospital by King's Fund Visitors in 1956 when it had become an integral part of the Royal Free Hospital see A/KE/737/14. The new Royal Free Hospital was subsequently built on this site.