Buckinghamshire

AMERSHAM

Amersham Hospital (Amersham Union Workhouse) SU 955 970, BF100254 Amersham Union Workhouse was built in 1838 to designs by George Gilbert Scott and William Bonython Moffatt. The main building is of knapped flint with red brick dressings and gabled slate roofs.

Extract from the 25 inch OS map, surveyed 1875 Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland
Extract from the 25 inch OS map, revised 1923. Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland
The former workhouse building at Amersham Hospital, now known as Gilbert Scott Court, photographed in 2008 by Nigel Cox cc-by-sa/2.0 – © Nigel Cox – geograph.org.uk/p/722216

An infirmary was added in 1904 to designs by H Belch. An emergency medical hospital was built in 1939 consisting of nine rows of single storey huts covered and roofed in corrugated asbestos, on concrete slabs. The workhouse later became St Mary’s Hospital and is now (2004) Amersham Hospital. The huts were still in use in the 1960s, and the maternity unit was housed in this part of the hospital. They were still extant in the 1970s, but were demolished to make way for the new block built in the early 2000s to provide out-patients clinics etc, the original workhouse building being used as offices.

Amersham Hospital, photographed in 2008, cc-by-sa/2.0 – © Nigel Cox – geograph.org.uk/p/723124
Amersham Hospital, photographed in the 1990s © Louis Holmsted
Amerham Hospital, photographed in the 1990s © Louis Holmsted
Amersham Hospital, photographed in the 1990s © Louis Holmsted

Amersham Isolation Hospital BF100450 The hospital was to be built in 1913 next to the workhouse but the outbreak of war in 1914 stopped any construction. The proposed buildings were to be an administrative block, two ward blocks, an observation ward & laundry/mortuary.

AYLESBURY

Aylesbury Union Workhouse (Tindal Centre) SP 825 146, BF100290

Extract from the 25 inch OS map, revised 1898. Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland

 Built in 1844. Originally had an H-plan. The infirmary block, built between 1844 and 1899, was extended in 1911 and 1932. In around 1939-40, Emergency Medical Scheme huts were erected to the rear of the site. Only the front range now remains, along with two contemporary entrance lodges and a nurses’ home dating from 1925-6, the rest of the site has been redeveloped with housing.

Manor House Hospital SP 826 142 Demolished.

Extract from the 6 inch OS map, revised 1938. Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland

Built between the wars, probably in the 1930s, as a residential institution for the mentally handicapped (people with additional support needs). It was rebuilt around the 1970s-80s – Woodlands House –  but these buildings too have largely been demolished to make way for a new development, begun around 2012 – the Whiteleaf Centre Hospital.

Royal Buckinghamshire Hospital (Buckinghamshire County Infirmary) SP 817 142, BF100257

Extract from the 25 inch OS map, revised 1898. Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland

 Established 1830-33 but demolished and rebuilt to designs by D Brandon, in consultation with Florence Nightingale, in 1861-62. It is an important early example of the smaller type of pavilion-plan hospital.

Royal Buckinghamshire Hospital photographed in 2017,  © John M (cc-by-sa/2.0)

A new wing was added in 1908, a nurses home in 1921 and a new outpatients department in 1936. It is now a private hospital.

Stoke Mandeville Hospital (Aylesbury Isolation Hospital; Aylesbury Joint Isolation Hospital) SP 826 117, BF100259  

Extract from the 6 inch OS map, revised 1938. Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland

The large hutted hospital built during the Second World War was erected just north of the isolation hospital first established here in the 1890s. The original building was converted to a cubicle block in 1932 when Collcutt and Hamp designed new ward blocks, administration building, laundry, mortuary, and lodge.

Stoke Mandeville Hospital (Ministry of Pensions Hospital) SP 825 119, BF100258  Established early in the Second World War. Early emphasis was on burns and fractures including spinal injuries in which it came to specialise. It now functions as a general hospital. The National Spinal Injuries Centre (NSIC) at Stoke Mandeville Hospital was founded in 1944. It is the oldest and one of the largest spinal injuries centres in the world. The centre was founded by Professor Sir Ludwig Guttmann, a neurologist, to treat servicemen who had sustained spinal cord injuries in World War II.

One of the newer blocks at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, completed in 2006 Photo © sijon (cc-by-sa/2.0)

In 1948 Guttmann began using sport in rehabilitation programmes and organised a competition on the 29th July for 16 paralysed men and women to coincide with the opening ceremony of the 1948 Olympic Games in London. Guttmann received a knighthood for his contribution to the Paralympics and for his rehabilitation techniques. More recently a fundraising campaign to create a purpose built spinal cord injuries centre was carried out. The new facilities opened in 1983. In the 2000s the war-time huts were slowly phased out. A new PFI hospital building was completed in 2006.

Whiteleaf Centre see above under Manor House Hospital

BUCKINGHAM

Buckingham Hospital (Buckingham Hospital and Nursing Home) SP 696 341, 100350

Buckingham Union Workhouse demolished 1830s Gilbert Scott workhouse

Extract from the 25 inch OS map, revised 1898. Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland

CHALFONT ST PETER

Chalfont Centre (Chalfont Colony for Epileptics) TQ 004 926, 100291

Extract from the 25 inch OS map, revised 1923. Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland

The Chalfonts and Gerrards Cross Hospital SU 996 909, 100288

Extract from the 25 inch OS map, surveyed 1876. Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland

CHESHAM

Chesham Hospital (Chesham Cottage Hospital) SP 963 012, 100287

Chesham Workhouse

former Chesham Workhouse, photographed in the 1990s © Louis Holmsted

HALTON

Princess Mary’s RAF Hospital SP 876 086, BF100298 A hutted military hospital was established at Halton in 1914. This was replaced by a pavilion hospital for the Royal Air Force in 1927. It comprised parallel administration ranges, special wards and kitchen, flanked by pavilion wards and a chapel range.

HIGH  WYCOMBE

Booker Hospital (Wycombe RDC Isolation Hospital; Wycombe and District Joint Isolation Hospital) SU 836 911, 100253

Chepping Wycombe Corporation Isolation Hospital SU 841 915, 100285

High Wycombe and Earl of Beaconsfield Memorial Cottage Hospital (High Wycombe Cottage Hospital) SU 869 934, 100284

Wycombe General Hospital (High Wycombe and District War Memorial Hospital) SU 864 926, 100377

IVER

Iver, Denham and Langley Cottage Hospital TQ 031 812, 100340

MARLOW

Marlow Community Hospital (Marlow Cottage Hospital) SU 853 867, 100345

NEWPORT PAGNELL

Newport Pagnell Union Workhouse  SP 886 432, 100252

SLAPTON

The Grove Hospital (Linslade RDC Infectious Diseases Hospital; Linslade UDC and Wing RDC Infectious Diseases Hospital) SP 911 232, 100248

STONE WITH BISHOPSTONE AND HARTWELL

Saint John’s Hospital (Buckinghamshire County Asylum) SP 770 720, 100256

TAPLOW

Canadian Red Cross Hospital (Duchess of Connaught’s Red Cross Hospital) SU 913 843, 100104

WINSLOW

Winslow Hospital (Winslow Union Workhouse) SP 728 281    Largely demolished. 1835 Gilbert Scott workhouse.