Building    To 1981

St Benedict's Hospital

Categories: Medicine

Hill House, built in 1802, was the manor house on this site. It was bought by St Joseph's Teaching Brotherhood and they built a Roman Catholic school, St Joseph's Roman Catholic College, in 1887. This moved to Beulah Hill in 1895 and in 1897 the site was taken over by the Wandsworth Board of Guardians to provide extra workhouse accommodation.The College building was enlarged and renamed the Tooting Home for the Aged and Infirm. Hill House became the Nurses' Home. 1903 more patient accommodation was added.

WW1 the Home became the Church Lane Military Hospital (also known as the Tooting Military Hospital) and it was used as a neurological hospital for shell-shocked and neurasthenic ex-servicemen until 1923. It was then empty until 1931 when the LCC reopened it as St Benedict's Hospital for long-stay patients. 1948 it joined the NHS. More patient accommodation was built in 1951.It closed in 1981 and housing now (2016) occupies the site.

All this information from the always excellent Lost Hospitals of London. This 1895 map shows the site with Hill House and the RC College in place.

Our picture source, History of St Benedicts, has other good photos as does Workhouses.

Footnote: Daniel Defoe is said to have lived in Hill House but the authoritative History of Tooting-Graveney: Surrey, 1897, by W. E. Morden is certain that Defoe could never have lived in a house on this site since Hill House was built, 1802, "in the comer of a field under cultivation", after Defoe's death, 1731.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
St Benedict's Hospital

Commemorated ati

St Benedict's Hospital - piers

Site of Tooting Military Hospital during World War 1; St Benedict's Hospital ...

Read More

St Benedict's Hospital - turret + portico

This reminds us of that scene at the end of Planet of the Apes.

Read More

Other Subjects

P. G. Bettison

P. G. Bettison

District Officer in the St John Ambulance Brigade, No. 1 (Prince of Wales's) District, 1926-1947. Serving Brother in the Order of St John.

Person, Emergency Services, Medicine, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
Edward Beadon Turner, F.R.C.S.

Edward Beadon Turner, F.R.C.S.

For many years he took a prominent part in the work of the British Medical Association having been chairman of the representative body from 1915-1918 and a member of the Council from 1912-1931. He ...

Person, Medicine, Sport / Games

1 memorial
Sir Stewart Duke-Elder

Sir Stewart Duke-Elder

Ophthalmologist. Born in Pitlochry, Scotland. Wrote a classic manual for eye surgeons, entitled "Textbook of Ophthalmology".

Person, Medicine, Scotland

1 memorial
Sir Jonathan Hutchinson

Sir Jonathan Hutchinson

Surgeon and pathologist. He was born on 23 July 1828 in Selby, Yorkshire and our picture source gives a biography of his life. He died, aged 84 years, on 23 June 1913 in Haslemere, Surrey and was ...

Person, Medicine

1 memorial
Bethlehem Hospital 1&2

Bethlehem Hospital 1&2

A priory for the Order of the Star of Bethlehem, built in 1247 on Bishopsgate at Liverpool Street, started admitting mental patients in 1357. This was probably the world's first institution to spec...

Building, Medicine

4 memorials

Previously viewed

Sydney Charles Pigden

Sydney Charles Pigden

Royal Air Force fighter pilot and PE teacher. Born Sydenham, lived in Lewisham most of his life. Aged 18, joined the RAF and flew Spitfires and Hurricanes. When he left the RAF he taught at Turnham...

Person, Education

1 memorial