Medical dates:

Medical character:

A hospital had been proposed for the area in 1925 and, in 1930, a piece of land was purchased on the Uxbridge Road, behind the Holy Trinity Church.  This was later sold when a new site was chosen, overlying a public park, on the corner of The Green and Osterley Park Road.  A fund was set up for the building of the hospital, and a million pennies (about £4,000 in old pennies) were collected for the project by Southall residents through a 'Penny-a-Week' scheme from February 1936 until June 1939.

The Southall-Norwood Hospital was officially opened in 1935 by the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Percy Vincent.  It had 28 beds in two wards (one male and one female), its own kitchen, a fully equipped operating theatre and an X-ray Department.  The Hospital was managed by the local General Practitioners.

At the outbreak of WW2 in 1939 the Hospital joined the Emergency Medical Service (EMS).  It had 37 beds, of which 9 were EMS beds, reserved for air-raid casualties.  In the following year the number of EMS beds had increased to 12.

In 1940 the cost of an in-patient was £4 1s 5d (£4.07) a week (compared to £3 12s 0d (£3.60) in 1939).  A Linen League was formed in 1941 to provide the Hospital with bed linen, towels and other necessary items.  By 1942 the weekly cost of an in-patient had risen to £6 7s 1d (£6.35), but fell slightly in 1943 to £6 1s 1d (£6.05), although shortages during the war had increased the price of drugs, instruments, lighting, fuel and salaries.

In 1948 the Hospital joined the NHS under the control of the Uxbridge Group Hospital Management Committee, part of the North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board.  It functioned as a district general hospital with 28 beds.

In 1953 the X-ray equipment was replaced with a modern set.  The Ministry of Health disposed of a piece of land at Norwood Green which belonged to the Hospital (it had been intended to be used for an extension to the Hospital).

In 1957 the weekly cost of an in-patient was £19 16s 9d (£19.84).

By 1960 the Hospital was well-equipped, including a short-wave diathermy machine for the operating theatre.

In 1961 a new building was added off the main corridor.  It contained two treatment rooms with a  joint sterilising room (previously sterilising for the wards had to be undertaken in the ward kitchen).

Following a major reorganisation of the NHS in 1974, the Hospital came under the administration of the Ealing District Health Authority, part of the North West Thames Regional Health Authority.

In 1979 many of its services moved to the newly opened Ealing Hospital.

In the late 1980s the Hospital was divided into two parts.  The original Victorian building on The Green became the Southall-Norwood Mental Health Resource Centre (now the Community Mental Health Team), while the extension at the rear became the Penny Sangam Day Hospital.

The Penny Sangam Day Hospital opened in November 1991.  It was the first of its kind in the Borough of Ealing to provide care for elderly people with severe mental problems.  In 2006 it relocated to new facilities at Elm Lodge in Marley Close, Greenford.

Present status (April 2008)

The buildings still remain and are now owned by the North West London Mental Health Trust.  The former male ward is now the Day Room and the female ward the Dining Room.  The old operating theatre space is used as an Activity Room.