Hospitality
A History of Hospitals in Croydon
Looking after residents when they are ill has been a long term commitment for local organisations responsible for our health.
In conjunction with Croydon University Hospital and to celebrate the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife in 2020,
here is a tour around our current and previous establishments in words and pictures.
Croydon University Hospital
Formerly Croydon Union Infirmary/Mayday Road Hospital/Mayday Hospital
By the 1830s the original Workhouse and Infirmary at Duppas Hill Road served a population of 137,000 in Croydon and surrounding areas. To treat increasing numbers of patients and the threat of epidemics like cholera, typhoid, smallpox, diphtheria and scarlet fever, the Croydon Board of Guardians opened a new larger Union Workhouse in Queens Road Thornton Heath, in September 1866. This was followed by the opening of the new Union Infirmary in Mayday Road Croydon on 16 May 1885. It had 435 beds although only 150 were in use at first and 12 staff and ‘day men’ from the nearby Workhouse were employed part-time to light the stoves in every ward. The main entrance was in Eridge Road, later renamed Woodcroft Road. A central corridor, about a quarter of a mile long, running parallel to Eridge Road linked all sections.
During World War One, the hospital mainly served civilian casualties whilst Croydon General cared for the military wounded. From the 1920’s, better health care and living conditions led to a gradual decrease in those who were destitute and the need for the Workhouse system declined. In 1923 the hospital was renamed Mayday Road Hospital and then simply Mayday Hospital. On 1 April 1932, following the abolition of the Board of Guardians, Mayday Hospital with 460 beds was now in the control of the County Borough of Croydon. During WW2 Mayday Hospital became part of the Emergency Medical Scheme reserving 500, of its then 596 beds, for air raid casualties.
A large air raid shelter with bunks was built under the grounds facing Woodcroft Road. The hospital did not go unscathed during the many air raids; sustaining loss of life, casualties and damage but treating around 1400 casualties during the war years.
The post-war years saw much modernisation and in 1948 the hospital joined the NHS. The 1960s heralded a period of upgrade and rebuild of Mayday as a General District Hospital with 600 beds with a new Accident and Emergency Department and operating theatres in 1969 and modernisation of the boiler house which saved £120,000 a year in running and maintenance costs.
May 1985 the hospital celebrated its centenary and a new surgical wing comprising 330 beds and 8 operating theatres was officially opened by Bernard Weatherill, Speaker of the House of Commons. In October 2001 the landmark 30m boiler chimney stack was demolished, to make way for the new ward block which opened in 2002; incorporating 222 beds, 4 operating theatres, 17 recovery beds and Day Surgery facilities. More recently, the new Accident and Emergency Department, providing 21st century modern, high quality care, opened on 2 December 2018. From its humble beginnings as a Union Infirmary and many transitions later, it became Croydon University Hospital in 2010.
Croydon General Hospital
The Croydon General Hospital opened as a voluntary hospital in 1867 in a part of the old infirmary at Duppas Hill Road vacated by the workhouse. It was partially self-supporting with patients paying for treatment; in-patients 3s (15p) a week and out-patients 6d (2.5p) each week. Only 4 of its 14 beds were free for the deserving poor. By 1873, the hospital needed larger premises and Oakfield Lodge, a three-storey mansion in London Road, was purchased.
After extensive alterations the hospital was officially opened in September of that year by the Archbishop of Canterbury. It now had 30 beds. The original lawns remained and a large kitchen garden which provided fruit and vegetables for staff and patients. Over the next three decades the size of the hospital increased several times. Two new wings were established; the Royal Alfred Wing in 1883 and the King Edward Memorial Wing in 1912.
During WW1 the hospital played a valuable part in the treatment of the war wounded, most often brought straight from the Western Front; the two wards allocated were rarely unoccupied. A few civilian casualties of the Zeppelin raid in October 1915, suffering mostly from shrapnel wounds, were also treated. By the beginning of the 1930s, the hospital had 130 beds, a Casualty Department and an Out-Patients Department with medical, surgical, ophthalmic, ENT, skin and dental clinics. It served a wide area from Streatham to Purley, unlike Mayday which took only Croydon residents. In February 1932 funds from the Charles Heath Clark J.P., bequest were used to open a new nurses home in Lennard Road ; a conversion of three houses.
The bequest also funded improvements to the hospital kitchens and laundry and an extension accommodating 60 beds which opened 2 years later. At this time the average length of stay for an in-patient was 17 days. In September 1939 the Out-Patients was closed for the duration. The hospital became part of the Emergency Medical Scheme and the bed compliment increased to 250. Earning the questionable distinction of being the most bombed borough in the country put an immense strain on its health services. The hospital joined the NHS in 1948 and began a period of transformation; wards were modernised and a new cafeteria was built. Nevertheless, by 1963 the Accident and Emergency Department was thought to be too small and understaffed and services were transferred to the expanding Mayday Hospital. By 1986 the hospital had only 97 beds finally closing to patients in 1996 and demolished in 2004.
St. Mary’s Maternity Hospital
In 1917 the Croydon Mothers' and Infants Welfare Association (previously known as the Mothers Dinner Committee) opened a Maternity Hostel with 7 beds at 75 Croydon Grove. It had five main goals; give ante-natal advice, care during and after pregnancy, support to mothers in the first few weeks of the child’s life, support and medical supervision in child’s first year and continued medical supervision up to school age.
By July 1918, The County Borough of Croydon had purchased the house at 49 St James Road, West Croydon. It was converted and specially adapted for use as a maternity hospital providing 17 beds, each with its own cot. Although managed by the Croydon Mothers' and Infants Welfare Association it received a yearly subsidy of £1800 from the Council, in return for which, 15 beds were reserved for their referrals. Larger premises became possible when, in 1930 an empty plot at the corner of St James Road and Lodge Road was purchased and a 3-storey purpose-built block became the new home for the Hostel, now renamed St Mary's Maternity Hospital. The original building became the administration offices. The Council increased its subsidy to £4500 claiming 30 of the now 32 beds for its clinic referrals.
On 1st April 1937 administration of St Mary’s Maternity Hospital was taken over by the Council and the two hospitals became closely associated in the delivery of maternity care. With the outbreak of war in 1939 the hospital joined the Emergency Medical Scheme. In preparation for war, reinforcing alterations were made to the ground floor and basement rooms, installing bunks in the latter to work as air raid shelters. The basement nursery was equipped with special boxes for the babies which fitted side by side. Although many expectant mothers signed up to be evacuated, most stayed or returned for their confinement. The expected rise in premature births because of the air raids was never realised. A bomb exploding in nearby Elmwood Road blew out the windows but none of the mothers, babies or staff were hurt. In April 1943 the Monteagle Nursing Home opened. Built as an annexe to St Mary’s Nursing Home and Mayday Maternity Department, it supported both by taking nursing mothers on their seventh day, until it was forced to close in 1945 because of bomb damage. In 1948 the hospital joined the NHS at which point the involvement of the Croydon Mothers' and Infants Welfare Association ceased. Under the auspices of the NHS, the hospital continued to offer maternity care. In 1959 it had 33 beds in small wards with 5 beds in each. In 1964 it had 30 beds and 609 deliveries in that year. A major reorganisation of the NHS in 1974 placed the hospital under the administration of the Croydon District Health Authority. It closed in 1985.
Cane Hill Hospital
Formerly known as Cane Hill Asylum/Cane Hill Mental Hospital
By 1875 the Surrey Pauper Lunatic Asylums of Springfield near Wandsworth and Brookwood near Woking were full to capacity. At this time, the care of sick paupers was the responsibility of the Boards of Guardians within the Union Workhouse System. With no other facility nearby, patients were placed in the neighbouring County Asylum in Berkshire or in private asylums at considerable cost. Recognising that this arrangement could not be sustained for any great length of time the Justices of the Peace for the County of Surrey decided to build a new asylum. It would not only alleviate the overcrowding of the existing Surrey asylums but allow for growth. The estimated building cost of £150,000 would be covered by the savings on using private care.
In 1880 148 acres of land were purchased from the Portnalls Estate in Coulsdon. Located on high ground overlooking the village of Coulsdon and the valleys of Chipstead and Smitham it provided an entirely rural setting for the new asylum. Cane Hill Asylum opened in December 1883. Built to very high standards, and with the capacity to accommodate 1124 patients; 644 women and 480 men, it was the largest institution of its kind in the U.K. The motto of the asylum was Aversos compono animos (I bring relief to troubled minds) This also appeared on the Cane Hill Badge (introduced 1949) given to staff who qualified from the Nurses Training School.
Designed by Charles Henry Howell, the layout of the building was original; ward blocks were arranged around a central block in a horse shoe shape with all corridors linking together. Although this made for a compact and efficient arrangement, the buildings faced south east and natural light could not enter easily so made the wards very dark. The central block, as with the other public areas, was decorated with wood panelling and stained glass. It contained the administrative offices, treatment rooms, a chapel, a large recreation and dining hall, the kitchens, storerooms and the laundry. There were eight different designs for the wards, to care for the different categories of patients.
The community of patients and staff was designed to be self-sufficient. Work was seen as part of the treatment and all patients were gainfully employed. There was no remuneration. Male patients were employed on the farm, in the gardens and the workshops, while female patients worked in the kitchens, the wards and the laundry. The late Victorian view of treatments for the “insane” was that little could be done beyond providing a good diet, clean living conditions and occupation and therefore asylums were considered places of sanctuary rather than cure. However, exercise, fresh air and recreation, were also believed to be beneficial to the well-being of patients and the new asylum provided enclosed airing courts, outdoor sports such as cricket, tennis and swimming and indoor activities such as dances, concerts and theatre.
Croydon had no asylum of its own so one eighth of the beds at Cane Hill Asylum were assigned to Croydon patients, renamed the London County Council Asylum with provision for Croydon. In 1889 the LCC extended the asylum bringing the bed capacity to 2000. At the same time, links with London were improved by the new station at Coulsdon. The following year, the asylum had a 40% recovery rate of admissions. Between 1898 and 1914 the LCC built six more mental asylums. However, the asylum at Cane Hill with its long and narrow shape proved difficult to expand further and remained unmodernised.
In 1914 the remainder of the Portnalls Estate was purchased and so further extending the asylum grounds. During the war years overcrowding became a problem and with it came disease. As with other institutions at this time TB, Dysentery and Influenza took their toll. Those returning from active service who needed hospitalisation are noted in the admission registers and were designated as service patients.
The Mental Health Act 1930 erased the word asylum from official use and it became known as Cane Hill Mental Hospital.
At the outbreak of WW2 the hospital joined the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) reserving 6 of the wards for military casualties. Some 300 patients were transferred from Horton Hospital at Epsom when it was taken over for war purposes bringing the total number of patients to 2500. The spread of TB was ever a problem in mental hospitals and the X-ray unit installed in the EMS part of the hospital was used for the control and monitoring of the disease.
On 5 July 1948 the hospital joined the NHS under the control of the Cane Hill Hospital Management Committee. By the end of 1950 some 3000 people, patients and staff, lived on the site. A requirement of The Mental Health Act of 1959 was the removal of the word ‘Mental’ from the title of such hospitals and in so doing some of the stigma associated with mental health at the time. Cane Hill Mental Hospital became Cane Hill Hospital.
The 1960s heralded a new era in the treatment of mental illness. There was a greater awareness of the need to move away from institutional care in favour of care within the community. As the years passed the introduction of new therapies and drugs diminished the need to hospitalise. Government policy took the view that patients should no longer be used to maintain their institutions and so hospital farms were closed. By 1974 the patient numbers had dropped to 1625. That same year the hospital was placed until the Bromley Area Health Authority.
The Mental Health Act of 1983 emphasised the policy of ‘Care in the Community’. Patients were now given accommodation and care in much smaller groups within the community which gradually led to the demise of the larger institutions. In 1988 the hospital had 787 beds. Cane Hill Hospital closed in March 1991. The medium secure unit remained housed in the old Vicarage next to the hospital. It had 23 beds and was managed by South London and Maudsley NHS Trust. It too closed in 2008 and patients moved to the Bethlem Royal Hospital.