I have been to ... the Memorial Hospital, Shooters Hill

A couple of weeks ago, Sue and I were part of a group who visited the Memorial Hospital on Shooters Hill.

The hospital was built after the First World War as a lasting memorial to the local people who died during the war. At the time, Woolwich and Plumstead Cottage Hospital was need of replacement and a fund was set up to raise the sum of £50,000 to build a replacement. The site selected was near the top of Shooters Hill and was known as Telegraph Hill because a semaphore station had been built there during the Napoleonic Wars.

The foundation stone was laid in 1925 by the Duke of Connaught, and two years later, the 112-bed hospital was opened by the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth). At the time, the hospital was known as the Woolwich and District Hospital Association Cottage Hospital, but by 1930 it was known as the Woolwich and District War Memorial Hospital, then - a year later - it was called the Woolwich and District Hospital Association War Memorial Hospital. It was renamed yet again in 1938 when it became the Memorial Hospital.

The original plans for the hospital included two additional wings, but although £24,000 was raised towards the cost of this extension, it was decided to use the funds to build a Nurse's Home in the hospitals grounds. The space previously used to house the nurses in the main building as then freed up, allowing the number of beds to be increased to 300, although this did not actually take place.

When the the Second World War broke out, the hospital acted as an annex to the nearby Royal Herbert Military Hospital and its capacity was increased to 137 beds. When the National Health Service was set up in 1948, it became a general hospital. In 1953 a new Out Patients Department was opened by Princess Marina of Kent, and two years later the hospital underwent refurbishment and a two new X-ray machines were installed. It had its own Casualty/Accident and Emergency Department until 1969, and by the 1965 the hospital had specialised in surgery. However, during the 1970s these services were transferred to the nearby Brook General Hospital and it became a 128-bed long-stay geriatric hospital.

Since at the early 2000s, it has been run by the Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust, and it now provides:

• Community health care (e.g. district nursing and speech and language therapy).
• Care for people with learning disabilities.
• Mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies.
• A day centre for the elderly.
• Administrative support

During our visit we spent time looking at the main memorial in the hospital entance before going up to the St Nicholas Chapel on the first floor. The chapel opened in 1986 after St Nicholas Hospital in Plumstead shut down. The fittings from that Hospital's chapel were installed in the new chapel along with windows from the chapel at the Goldie Leigh Hospital, Abbey Wood, and a tondo (a circular relief sculpture) from the British Hospital for Mothers and Babies, which had closed in 1984.

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The entrance to the hospital's main building

The memorial shrine in the main entrance to the hospital

The memorial shrine. Books of Remembrance for those who died during the First and Second World Wars are respectively displayed on the left and right sides of the altar

The dedication plaque is displayed behind a grill above the altar.

A ceramic plaque showing an injured person being treated is positioned above the memorial. 

A plaque that commemorates the opening of the hospital by the Duke and Duchess of York (the future King George V and Queen Elizabeth) in 1927.

A plaque that commemorates the President and various committee members involved in the building and management of the hospital.

Plaques that commemorate the staff of local hospitals who died as a result of enemy action during the two World Wars..

The hospital's chapel

The chapel's altar.

One of the wnidows that were originally fitted in the chapel of the Goldie Leigh Hospital.

The second of the two windows that were originally fitted in the chapel of the Goldie Leigh Hospital.

The tondo from the British Home for Mothers and Babies.

A photograph of the hospital's main building after a heavy snowfall