Friday 26 June 2015

A little bit of the history of our cottage hospital

Now it’s one of those odd little bits of personal history but I can’t ever remember going to the Eltham Cottage Hospital and nor did any of my sisters.

But during the time the building was being demolished and the new community health centre was going up plenty of people shared stories of the minor opps and a bit more that they received at the place.

And I was reminded of this when Sue Simpson sent me a picture of the new building in response to yesterday’s story about Passey Place.

All of which got me thinking about its history, which was longer and more chequered than I had thought.

I knew that back in 1914 it was the Eltham and Mottingham Cottage Hospital but had little idea of the rest until I stumbled on Lost Hospitals of London.*

The original hospital dated from 1880 when it was opened at no 9 on the High Street “founded mainly by wealthy local residents and was staffed by a nurse, a cook and an unpaid Superintendent” and relocated to Passey Place in 1898."

It is a fascinating story and the site offers up a shedful of information on the hospital over the rest of its 82 years.

It closed in 1980 and went through a number of different uses including a nursing home from 1989 till 2010.

But as someone else has done the research and presented it better than I could I will just point you to the link leaving me only to reflect that it was only in 1948 with the establishment of the National Health Service that we moved away from a health care system which relied on wealthy benefactors and fund raising activities.

Picture; the health Centre on Passey Place, June 2015, from the collection of Sue Simpson

*Eltham nad Mottingham Cottage Hospital, http://ezitis.myzen.co.uk/elthamandm.html

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