SOUTHWARK BRIDGE ROAD.
Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2017 1:55 am
The Evelina Hospital was founded 1869 by the wealthy Austrian Baron, Ferdinand de Rothschild, in memory of his English wife, Evelina who had died in childbirth three years earlier.
This photograph was taken in 1969, but, apart from the roof-storey (added in 1903) it looks much the same as when it opened a hundred years earlier.
Unlike other children’s hospitals which depended from the very beginning on public generosity, the Evelina was funded entirely from Rothschild’s personal wealth.
The outbreak of war in 1939 saw the Evelina turned into a Casualty Post, the children being either sent home or transferred to other hospitals, although the out-patient department continued to function. Throughout the war years the hospital was reopened to child patients and closed again as conditions changed. It took direct hits several times, in 1940, 1941 and 1944, but fortunately no lives were lost.
However, its days as an independent children's hospital were now numbered. With the formation of the National Health Service in 1946 the process of merging the Evelina into its nearby neighbour Guy's began in earnest. In 1948, the training of nurses and doctors for both institutions were integrated although the Evelina maintained a large degree of administrative autonomy. It took nearly 30 years for full integration to occur, when the building on Southwark Bridge Road was finally closed and the Evelina moved onto the Guy's site (1976) - in time to become just the children's ward for that hospital, its name and independence lost in the mists of time.
Evelina Hospital brought back some memories. I spent some time in there when I was about four (1946), can't remember what for though. I can remember some young girl (about 14) picking me up and dropping me on my head, it was an accident. So, I went home with a big bandage on me head and to cap it all off my Mum came to get me and forgot to bring my trousers. Then we get on the bus (was it a number 21?) and the only seats empty are the long one's just by the door. I might have been only four but I kept my legs crossed all the way to the Bricklayers Arms and I never let my Mum forget that.
This photograph was taken in 1969, but, apart from the roof-storey (added in 1903) it looks much the same as when it opened a hundred years earlier.
Unlike other children’s hospitals which depended from the very beginning on public generosity, the Evelina was funded entirely from Rothschild’s personal wealth.
The outbreak of war in 1939 saw the Evelina turned into a Casualty Post, the children being either sent home or transferred to other hospitals, although the out-patient department continued to function. Throughout the war years the hospital was reopened to child patients and closed again as conditions changed. It took direct hits several times, in 1940, 1941 and 1944, but fortunately no lives were lost.
However, its days as an independent children's hospital were now numbered. With the formation of the National Health Service in 1946 the process of merging the Evelina into its nearby neighbour Guy's began in earnest. In 1948, the training of nurses and doctors for both institutions were integrated although the Evelina maintained a large degree of administrative autonomy. It took nearly 30 years for full integration to occur, when the building on Southwark Bridge Road was finally closed and the Evelina moved onto the Guy's site (1976) - in time to become just the children's ward for that hospital, its name and independence lost in the mists of time.
Evelina Hospital brought back some memories. I spent some time in there when I was about four (1946), can't remember what for though. I can remember some young girl (about 14) picking me up and dropping me on my head, it was an accident. So, I went home with a big bandage on me head and to cap it all off my Mum came to get me and forgot to bring my trousers. Then we get on the bus (was it a number 21?) and the only seats empty are the long one's just by the door. I might have been only four but I kept my legs crossed all the way to the Bricklayers Arms and I never let my Mum forget that.