ROYAL EYE HOSPITAL

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: H15/RE
Held at	: London Metropolitan Archives   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma ›
Full title	: ROYAL EYE HOSPITAL
Date(s)	: 1857-1980
Level of description	: subfonds View parent record
Extent	: 9.58 linear metres
Name of creator(s)	: Royal Eye Hospital

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

The Royal Eye Hospital was founded in 1857 by John Zachariah Laurence with the assistance of Carsten Holthouse. It opened with two beds in a house in St George's Circus, Southwark, under the name of the South London Ophthalmic Hospital. It was enlarged in 1860 by the addition of an adjoining house and changed its name to the Surrey Ophthalmic Hospital, the first in a series of name changes. In 1863 it became the Ophthalmic Hospital, in 1869 the Royal South London Ophthalmic Hospital, and in 1892, on the opening of a new enlarged hospital building still in St George's Circus, the Royal Eye Hospital. In 1906 the first organised teaching course in connection with the hospital was started, The first full time Chair in Ophthalmology was established at the hospital in conjunction with the Royal College of Surgeons in 1943. Arnold Sorsby was the first professor.

The hospital was badly damaged by bombing in May 1941 forcing the closure of the In-Patient Department. This re-opened in March 1942 in a house acquired by the hospital in Upper Brighton Road, Surbiton. Outpatients continued to be treated in Southwark. The Surbiton hospital started its own small outpatient department in 1943. The Southwark hospital was able to re-open twenty-eight beds for in-patients in December 1944. These were supplemented by beds at Lambeth Hospital, which were made available by the London County Council for the use of Royal Eye Hospital patients.

The hospital was transferred to the National Health Service in 1948 and became part of King's College Hospital Group. This association was terminated in October 1956 at the request of the Royal Eye Hospital which then became part of the Lambeth Group of hospitals within the South West Metropolitan Region. The Lambeth Group amalgamated with the Wandsworth Group in 1964 to form the South West London Group. In about 1973 the Royal Eye Hospital, Southwark, was transferred to St Thomas' Hospital Group, which in 1974 became St Thomas' Health District (Teaching). The Royal Eye Hospital, Surbiton, passed to Kingston and Richmond Area Health Authority.

The Southwark hospital ceased to admit in-patients in 1976 when the Royal Eye Hospital ward opened in the new St Thomas' Hospital ward block. The outpatient department closed in 1980. The hospital buildings were taken over for administrative use first by Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham Area Health Authority and then by Lewisham and North Southwark Health Authority.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Records of the Royal Eye Hospital, including Committee of Management minutes, 1879-1890; Medical Committee minutes, 1893-1960; School Sub-Committee minutes, 1906-1912; Social Committee minutes, 1936-1956; annual reports, 1858-1948; Articles of Association, 1930-1931; rules and bye-laws, 1930-1937; papers relating to the Richard Minter Mount legacy, 1875-1902; papers relating to the Royal patronage of the Hospital, 1901-1910; papers, reports and correspondence relating to proposed amalgamation with King's College Hospital, 1946-1948; legal papers including agreements and covenants, 1875-1947. Patient records including admission and discharge registers, 1861-1972; in-patients case books, 1893-1958; diagnostic index, 1936-1949; illustrated brochure for nurses wishing to train for the Diploma of the Ophthalmic Nursing Board at the Royal Eye Hospital, [1957]; registers of nursing staff, 1956-1963; research fund petty cash book, 1944-1949; copies of The Royal Eye Hospital 1857-1957 by Arnold Sorsby; papers relating to special events, 1906-1957; papers collected by Arnold Sorsby relating to the life of John Zachariah Laurence, founder of the South London Ophthalmic Hospital; and photographs and prints of the Hospital buildings, staff, patients and special events, 1912 - 1980, including surgeons Carsten Holthouse, Malcolm MacDonald McHardy and Thomas Wilfred Letchworth, and Professor Arnold Sorsby.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

The records are arranged as follows: A = Administration, B = Patient Records, C = Staff Records, D = Financial Records, Y = Related Documentation, Z = Photographs and Prints.

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

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Acc/1958, Acc/2001, Acc/2724, Acc/2931

Allied Materials

Related material:

The records of King Edward's Hospital Fund for London which have been deposited here include reports and files of the Royal Eye Hospital (re. A/KE/255/, A/KE/528/4, A/KE/542/11, A/KE/556).

Publication note:

For further information see The Royal Eye Hospital 1857 - 1957 by Arnold Sorsby and Leonora Maclean and The Royal Eye Hospital by Patricia Mowbray.

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
February 2009