Looking for the Blackheath Hospital ........... and finding it

Now I thought I had found Blackheath Hospital, but alas it is not so.

Nurses, Starting, Green, Leadbetter & Lines, May 1931

For while there is a very impressive private hospital with that name at 40-42 Lee Terrace it is not the one, I am looking for.

It was only opened in 1984, having had a varied history including as a private residency, a school, and old people’s home and even during the Second World War as a fire station.*

And so it cannot be the one where a young Jean Lines trained in 1931.

I must admit I doubted that it would be that easy to find, more so because many of the ways of locating the place are denied to me.

So while I have maps and street directories of Blackheath they do not stretch to the 1930s.

All I have so far is an entry in the 1932 electoral register for Jean Lines who was living at 32 St John’s Park, along with five other women.

This is all the more frustrating given that I have quite a few pictures of Ms. Lines and other members of the family, which come from the family collection of Frances Jones.**

Jean Lines left of centre

Like many such collections they are a mix of professional photographs and snaps.

And of these snaps there are three of Jean Lines and a caption which links her to a hospital in Blackheath where she was training to be a nurse.

Of course, if I were dealing with Greater Manchester I would be confident that I could track it and her down, but alas Blackheath is a long way from where I live.

And my hospital may not even have been called Blackheath Hospital, but it is or was out there in 1931.

That said there will be someone who knows, and can point me in the right direction, which will add to what I know of this young woman.

Jean Lines  (training at Blackheath)

We shall see.

And within minutes of posting the story and the quest to find Jean's hospital, Frances came up with a link to the place I having looking for.  

It comes from that very interesting site, Lost Hospitals of London, which I have used in  the past but had forgotten about, leaving me just to to thank Frances and post the link.

I could of course just lift the information , but that's not how I work.

Location; Blackheath

Pictures; from the family collection of Frances Jones

*Paradise  Tree Care, https://treesurgeonsblackheath.co.uk/blackheath-se3-places-of-interest-hospital-pubs-bars-and-the-royal-standard/

**Stories behind the pictures ………https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2022/06/stories-behind-pictures.html

***Blackheath & Charlton Hospital, Shooters Hill, Blackheath, SE3, Lost Hospitals of London, https://ezitis.myzen.co.uk/blackheathandcharlton.html?fbclid=IwAR02-vedWbKnRmGT0daOLWtxunBcvFXsGHmlvZVtut_XLHJ1PPFnxMu9RtM