Gordon Hospital
126 Vauxhall Bridge Road, Westminster, SW1V 2RF
Medical dates:
Medical character:
1884 - current
Specialist. Later, mental
Founded in 1884 for the medical and surgical care of poor patients with rectal disease, it was first called the Western Hospital for Fistula, Piles and Other Diseases of the Rectum and was located in a small house at 278 Vauxhall Bridge Road. It had seven beds.
In 1886 it was renamed the Gordon Hospital for Fistula, Piles and Other Diseases of the Rectum. This was to commemorate Major-General Charles Gordon (1833-1885) who had died the previous year.
In 1894 the house next door (276 Vauxhall Bridge Road) was purchased and the Hospital then had ten beds.
It moved to a purpose-built site in the same road in 1899, when it had 25 beds.
In 1910 electric light was installed in the building and, in 1911, its name was shortened to the Gordon Hospital for Rectal Diseases.
In 1928 a new Out-Patients Department opened, with its entrance in Bloomberg Street.
By the 1930s the Hospital enjoyed an international reputation for the treatment of rectal disease. Specialists came from all over the world to study the treatment of cancer of the rectum, which the Hospital had pioneered.
In 1930 a large colonic lavage unit was installed in the basement. Between 1935 and 1937 the Hospital was extended and the old building demolished and rebuilt. The work was paid for by Mr John A Dewar, the millionaire racehorse owner and President of the Hospital since 1933. The two new blocks has been paid for with previous gifts of his totalling £80,000 and he had donated an additional £50,000 for the reconstruction of the old part of the Hospital. The newly equipped Hospital had 100 beds and rooms for 50 nurses.
It was renamed the Gordon Hospital for Diseases of the Rectum and Colon in 1939 , when it had 102 beds. In 1941 it was called simply the Gordon Hospital.
The Hospital was closed during WW2. In 1947 it reopened and, on joining the NHS in 1948, merged with the Westminster Hospital.
In 1999 it became part of the Brent, Kensington, and Chelsea and Westminster NHS Trust, which was formed from various NHS Mental Trusts.
The Hospital is now managed by the Central and North West London NHS Trust, which was formed in May 2007 - one of the largest specialist mental health Trusts in England.
Present status (January 2008) With its entrance now in Bloomberg Street, the Hospital has 90 beds for adult patients with mental health problems, a Day Services Unit and an Out-Patients Department. |
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The front elevation in Vauxhall Bridge Road.
The main entrance is now in Bloomberg Street.
References (Accessed 7th February 2016)
(Author unstated) 1933 The Hospital World. British Journal of Nursing (March), 82.
(Author unstated) 1934 The Hospital World. British Journal of Nursing (September), 248.
(Author unstated) 1938 The Hospital World. British Journal of Nursing (January), 24.
Smith M, Sakula A 1994 Hospital Names. London, RSM Press.