The Passmore Edwards Acton Jubilee Cottage Hospital was officially opened in May 1898 by Mrs Creighton (the first President of the National Union of Women Workers), accompanied by her husband, the Bishop of London. It had been built to mark Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. The plot of land in Gunnersbury Lane had been donated by the banker Lord Rothschild and Mr. Leopold de Rothschild, and the Hospital was named after the Cornish philanthropist John Passmore Edwards, who had supported the project financially with a gift of £2,500.

The Hospital occupied mainly the ground floor, with general wards containing 8 beds and 2 cots. Adjacent to these were two small rooms, each with a single bed. Associated with the Hospital were a Nursing Institution providing a district nursing service and an Invalid Kitchen, which made and delivered meals to patients who were ill or convalescing at home. By 1902 the Hospital also included a provident dispensary and a rapidly expanding Out-Patients Department.

It was supported by voluntary subscriptions and donations of money and gifts of foodstuffs and practical items. Poor patients resident in Acton, or employed by a resident of Acton, were admitted free of charge. If there was a bed vacancy private pateints could also be admitted for operation or as an accident case for a minimum charge of 2 guineas (£2.10) a week (however, only one private patient was allowed at any one time). As with other voluntary hospitals, cases of mental disorder, infectious diseases, advanced TB, pregnancy or incurable illness were ineligible for admission. Prospective patients had to produce a letter of recommendation from a subscriber and a medical certificate, except in emergency cases.

By 1904 in-patient accommodation had nearly doubled and in 1909, when an operating theatre and a children's ward were added, the Hospital contained 30 beds.

In 1915 it was renamed Acton Hospital.  During WW1 it had mainly military patients.  In 1916 an antenatal clinic, a bed for complicated pregnancies and an infant dispensary were added.

In 1920 there were 35 beds. Patients paid according to their means.

The left wing of the Hospital, was built in 1923 as part of the town's War Memorial (adding another 17 beds). It was renamed the Acton War Memorial Hospital. By this time it was considered to be one of the finest general suburban hospitals, with a Resident Medical Officer and fully qualified nursing staff, an X-ray Department and an excellent Out-Patients Department. It also provided wards for private patients who could not afford the higher fees of a nursing home.

More extensions were built in 1928, including a Nurses' Home. The Hospital then had 62 beds. By 1934 there were 72 beds.

During WW2 the Hospital became part of the Emergency Medical Scheme (EMS).  In addition to its own beds, it was supplemented by 42 EMS beds.

The Hospital was upgraded after WW2 and it joined the NHS in 1948 as a general hospital with 84 beds under the control of the Central Middlesex Group Hospital Management Committee, part of the North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board.  It had a large well-equipped X-ray Department and a large Physiotherapy Department. The average stay of an in-patient was 16 days (chronically sick patients stayed on average 181 days).

Following a major reorganisation of the NHS in 1974, the Hospital was transferred to the control of the North Hammersmith (Teaching) District Health Authority, part of the North West Thames Regional Health Authority. The Health Authorities decided in 1975 that it would not become a district general hospital, but a community hospital.

By 1980 it was caring for geriatric patients requiring long-term care and rehabilitation.

Following another NHS reorganisation in 1982, control of the Hospital passed to the Hammersmith Special Health Authority (which, in 1985, became the Hammersmith and Queen Charlotte's Special Health Authority).

In 1990, when the Hospital had 72 beds, the former Casualty Department was redeveloped and became the Gunnersbury Unit for the assessment of the elderly mentally ill. In 1994 the Hospital became part of the Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust, together with Hammersmith Hospital, Charing Cross Hospital and Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital.

The Acton Hospital finally closed in 2001.

While most of the site is a modern health care centre, the original building for the Passmore Edwards Cottage Hospital survives, tucked away just off the main road, looking in pristine condition. 

The doorway still bears the name of the Cottage Hospital.

The foundation stone laid in June 1897 by Lady Rothschild (left) and the masonry plaque commemorating the opening of the Hospital in May 1898 by Mrs Creighton (right) are still located beneath the bay windows of the building.

References

(Author unstated) 1897 Reflections from a Board Room mirror. Nursing Record and Hospital World, 3rd April, 279.

(Author unstated) 1897 Reflections from a Board Room mirror. Nursing Record and Hospital World, 19th June, 507.

(Author unstated) 1898 Coming events. Nursing Record and Hospital World, 30th April, 366.

(Author unstated) 1898 Reflections from a Board Room mirror. Nursing Record and Hospital World, 14th May, 403.

www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk
www.actonhistory.co.uk
www.aim25.ac.uk
www.british-history.ac.uk
www.derelictlondon.com
www.passmoreedwards.org.uk