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.

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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 ...

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St Benedict's Hospital - turret + portico

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

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A. J. Cronin

A. J. Cronin

Novelist and general practitioner. Born Dumbartonshire as Archibald Joseph Cronin. Studied in Glasgow and served in WW1 as a surgeon in the Navy. Practised in Wales and in 1924 was appointed Medica...

Person, Literature, Medicine, Scotland, Switzerland, USA

1 memorial
Max von Pettenkofer

Max von Pettenkofer

Born southern Germany. It appears that Pettenkofer's successes in pioneering hygiene were sheer luck and his recognition on the frieze at the LSHTM is unmerited. But his biography on the picture s...

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1 memorial
British Medical Association

British Medical Association

Founded as the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association (PMSA) by Sir Charles Hastings in Worcester. In 1836 Dr George Webster founded an organisation called the British Medical Association. Fr...

Group, Medicine

5 memorials
Dr. John Snow

Dr. John Snow

Pioneer anaesthetist and epidemiologist. Born North Street in York. The site given as the source for the picture of Snow is an excellent site.

Person, Medicine

6 memorials
Royal Free Hospital

Royal Free Hospital

Founded by William Marsden as the London General Institution for the Gratuitous Cure of Malignant Diseases on 17th April 1828 in a rented 4-storey house at 16 Greville Street, Hatton Garden. Septem...

Group, Medicine

6 memorials

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Betty Knight

Betty Knight

EC1, St John's Street, Tunbridge House, Spa Green Estate

Betty Knight, 1936 - 2010, champion for the rights of Islington residents, lived here from 1976 - 2010. London Borough of Islington Islin...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Charles Tyson Yerkes

Charles Tyson Yerkes

First things first - pronounce his name to rhyme to with turkeys.  He has a claim to having created London Transport. Born Philadelphia. The memorial describes him as 'creative' and 'imaginative' ...

Person, Transport, USA

2 memorials