Medical dates:

Medical character:

By the late 19th century public concern about the high number of infectious disease epidemics had greatly increased.  Although the Metropolitan Asylums Board (MAB) had provided numerous purpose-built isolation hospitals in London, the Isolation Hospitals Act of1893 made the hospitalisation of patients with contagious diseases compulsory and local authorities were obliged to provide facilities for them.

In February 1900 the Enfield Urban District Council opened a new isolation hospital for its local population on a site immediately north of the Northern Convalescent Fever Hospital at Winchmore Hill, replacing the temporary iron huts erected by MAB in 1891.

The Enfield Isolation Hospital comprised six single-storey blocks, built on a north-south axis on the west of the site, with a small single-storey Admissions block at the southwest.  A 3-storey administration block was located to the east, by the main entrance of World's End Lane.  The boiler house and service block were located at the north of the site.

In 1905 control of the Hospital passed to the Enfield and Edmonton Joint Hospital Board.

In 1938 four additional single-story blocks were built at the northwest of the site to provide an additional 200 beds.

During WW2 non-infectious cases were also admitted and, when the Hospital joined the NHS in 1948, it became a general hospital.  It was under the control of the Enfield Group Hospital Management Committee, part of the North East Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board, who renamed it South Lodge Hospital, after South Lodge, a property once adjacent to the Hospital.  (The Lodge, one of the four hunting lodges of Enfield Chase frequented by the Tudor monarchs, had been demolished in 1935 with the development of Oakwood and the building of the South Lodge Estate; its name is now commemorated by South Lodge Drive and South Lodge Crescent.)

In 1960 the Hospital had 243 beds, for mainly acute patients.  A maternity unit opened in 1963 but, in 1966, it merged with its larger neighbour, the Highlands Hospital, completely losing its separate identity.

Present status (April 2008)

While the buildings of the former Northern Hospital survived, those of South Lodge Hospital were completely demolished.  Blake Court, a retirement apartment block, was built in 1997 over the site of the former entrance.

The site is now part of Highlands Village and contains a retail and housing development, the first phase of which was completed in 1994.  Originally included in the conservation area of the entire Highlands Hospital site, it was de-designated in 2008.