IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): H33/RCH
Held at: London Metropolitan Archives
Title: ROYAL CHEST HOSPITAL
Date(s): 1825-1940
Level of description: sub-fonds
Extent: 2.45 linear metres
Name of creator(s): Royal Chest Hospital
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
The Royal Chest Hospital was founded in 1814 as the Infirmary for Asthma, Consumption and other Diseases of the Lungs by Dr Isaac Buxton of the London Hospital, with the support of the Duke of Kent and the Duke of Sussex. It opened in a house, no. 36 Union Street (now Brushfield Street), in Spitalfields, later the Prince Albert Public House. In 1833 the hospital moved to 10 Artillery Street, Spitalfields. The affairs of the hospital reached a low ebb with the resignation of its physician, Dr Francis Ramadge, and lack of money prevented it from admitting in-patients. In 1848 Queen Victoria's patronage was secured whereupon the hospital became known as the Royal Infirmary for Asthma, Consumption and other Diseases of the Lungs. After two or three years in temporary accommodation at 4 Dean Street, Finsbury Square, it moved to City Road in 1850, where it reopened to in-patients under the name of the Royal Infirmary for Asthma, Consumption and other Diseases of the Chest. Its name was shortened in 1859 to the Royal Infirmary for Diseases of the Chest.;In 1863 the hospital acquired its first purpose built premises in City Road. These were extended by the addition of a new outpatients department in 1863, a new ward block in 1886, and a nurses' home in 1900. In 1867 the hospital adopted a new constitution and changed its name again to become the Royal Hospital for Diseases of the Chest. The Department for the Prevention of Consumption was established in 1912. The hospital entered into agreements with the Metropolitan Boroughs of Finsbury, Islington and Shoreditch, whereby a tuberculosis dispensary at the Royal Chest Hospital treated patients from Finsbury, Shoreditch and the southern part of Islington.
The hospital adopted yet another name in 1919 becoming the Royal Chest Hospital. At the same time, constrained by lack of space for expansion and financial difficulties, the governors entered into negotiations with the Great Northern Central Hospital, Holloway Road, leading to the amalgamation of the two hospitals in 1921. The work of the Royal Chest Hospital continued as before in City Road, but the hospital was now administered from the Great Chest (renamed the Royal Northern) Hospital. The intention of moving the Royal Chest Hospital to a separate block of the rebuilt Royal Northern Hospital remained unfulfilled on the outbreak of war in 1939. In 1941 the Royal Chest Hospital was badly damaged by combing. Although outpatient work at the hospital continued, it was no longer able to admit in-patients. In 1948 it became part of the National Health Service as one of the Northern Group of hospitals under the authority of the North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board. The hospital closed in 1954.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Records of the Royal Chest Hospital, 1825-1940, including minutes, annual reports, registers of sisters, nurses and servants, regulations for staff, registers of subscribers and donors, visitors books and publications.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
The records are arranged as follows: A = Administration, C = Staff Records, D = Finacial Records, Y = Related Documentation.
Conditions governing access:
These records are open to public inspection, although under section 5(4) of the 1958 Public Records Act administrative records are closed for 30 years and patient records for 100 years.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copyright Depositor
Physical characteristics:
Fit
Finding aids:
Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Acc/2180, Acc/2210, Acc/2934
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
Publication note:
For further information on the history of the hospital, see articles written by Dr Norah H. Schuster, pathologist to the Royal Chest Hospital 1927-1954, and her copious notes (ref.: Acc/2180).
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Date(s) of descriptions: February 2009