New is Old at the New Hospital for Women
It seems like an odd thing now in 2017 to dedicate a whole hospital just for women—especially with the NHS’s problems. But when the New Hospital for Women opened in 1866, it was difficult for underprivileged women to obtain medical help from qualified practitioners, much less qualified female practitioners.
The New Hospital for Women on Euston Road then (Wellcome Images), and now in 2017 (Peter Imbong).
Thus, Elizabeth Garrett, the UK’s first female doctor, took it upon herself to provide women with the medical care they deserved. The New Hospital for Women was first a 10-bed ward at St. Mary’s Dispensary at 69 Seymour Place. As demand grew, in 1874 it moved to Marylebonne Road. And then in 1890 it moved to a then new building along Euston road (photo above). Done in a Queen Anne Style with fine brickwork, a corner tower, and shadowed entrances, the foundation stone was laid by Alexandra, Princess of Wales in 1899.
It was expanded in 1912 when a place was acquired along Gloucester Road in Barnet. And then in 1918, following the death of Elizabeth Garrett, the New Hospital for Women was renamed Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital.
Since then, the hospital has continued to grow with new wings and new land, and the addition of a nurses’ home in the 1930s, and the purchase of the Hampstead Nursing Home in the 1940s.
Currently, the building—whose parts are Grade I listed-- is owned by Unison, the Health Service workers union. The site is now a mixed development with an apartment block and an office tower.
Find out more about Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and her work here.
