English Hospitals

These pages are based on the national survey of pre-1948 English hospitals carried out from 1990-3 by the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England. I have been slowly expanding the pages, updating the information, adding maps and photographs.

The Royal Commission survey formed the basis of a book, English Hospitals 1660-1948, A Survey of their Architecture and Design, published in 1998 by the Royal Commission. The fieldwork and research was carried out by Ian Goodall, Kathryn Morrison, Ian Pattison, Robert Taylor, Colin Thom and myself. Between us we researched and wrote the book, which I then edited.

The gazetteer is arranged county by county, in alphabetical order by town or parish. The ID number after the grid reference refers to the building file compiled during the project. These files can be consulted at Historic England Archives, Swindon. Their contents vary; most have a report, maps, photographs and photocopies of articles from the architectural press of the time, Kelly’s Directories etc. Some are thinner, and may have little more than a map and record sheet. I would advise contacting the Archive prior to a visit to make sure the contents of the file justify a visit.

Many of the sites were photographed by the RCHME’s professional photographers, and by the aerial photographers. Photocopies of these are likely to be in the file, but originals may be in another part of the archive. It was pre-digital days, so they are all prints and mostly black and white. In addition to the archive photographs, the six of us took black and white snaps and colour slides. These were not intended for the archive, but were an aide memoire for us to write up our reports. Most of the black and white snaps nevertheless found their way into the building files.

Click on the links below to take you to the individual county pages or use the search function.