Medical dates:

Medical character:

The City of London Red Cross Hospital opened on 2nd October 1915 with 100 beds in the premises of the Bueckers Hotel, Finsbury Square.  It had been established by the City of London Branch of the British Red Cross Society, who had already set up a hospital at Fishmongers' Hall.  

The Commandant, Mrs Crosby, was a former Lord Mayoress.  The nursing staff consisted of 10 trained nurses, supplied entirely by the Institution for Nursing Sisters at 4 Devonshire Square, E.C., who were assisted by male orderlies and the City's Voluntary Aid Detachment.

The wards were arranged on four floors running the length of the building along Christopher Street.  The Hospital also had a good operating theatre and an X-ray department.  In the lounge on the ground floor, convalescent patients were able to relax under a vine and a fig tree.  Another room, of noble proportions, had a bay window overlooking a tree-lined garden, in which patients could enjoy the open air.  There was also a billiards room.

The Hospital was officially opened in December 1915 by the Lady Mayoress, accompanied by the Lord Mayor.  

The Hospital had been recognised by the War Office as a primary war hospital instead of an auxiliary one in November 1915, and thus received wounded servicemen direct from the front instead of as drafts through other hospitals.  It had been renamed the City of London Military Hospital and was run on military lines, with no Commandant, as a section of the Fifth London (T.F.) General Hospital.  It had 130 beds.

The Hospital closed in 1919.

Present status (March 2010)

The site is now occupied by Finwell House, an office building.