Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0387 QE
Held at	: Barts Health NHS Trust Archives (Royal London Hospital Archives)   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.bartshealth.nhs.uk/barts-health-archives ›
Full title	: Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children
Date(s)	: 1868-1998
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 120 linear metres
Name of creator(s)	: North Eastern Hospital for Children; Queen's Hospital for Children; Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children.
Detailed catalogue	: Click here to view repository detailed catalogue

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

This hospital was founded in 1867 by Miss Mary Elizabeth Philips and Miss Ellen Philips, who were members of the Society of Friends. A house in Virginia Road, Bethnal Green, opened on 12 July 1867 as the Dispensary for Women and Children. It was soon decided that only children would be treated and as the North Eastern Hospital for Children the work was transferred to 125 Hackney Road, providing 12 cots. In 1870 the freehold of 327 Hackney Road was purchased and the hospital grew on that site, on the corner of Hackney Road and Goldsmith Row. The hospital was re-named the Queen's Hospital for Children in 1907. It opened a country branch called the Little Folks Home (named after the Little Folks magazine) at Bexhill -on -Sea in 1911. This was evacuated to Woking during World War II.
The Hospital merged with the Princess Elizabeth of York Hospital, Shadwell in 1942, and re-named the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children. Thereafter the hospital functioned on two London sites: Queen Elizabeth, Hackney Road; and Queen Elizabeth, Shadwell. A further site was opened at Banstead, Surrey, in 1948. The Shadwell site closed in 1963. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Group was formed in 1948 to administer the Queen Elizabeth Hospital on its three sites at Hackney Road, Shadwell and Banstead. On closure of the Shadwell site in 1963 it was amalgamated with the Hackney Group to form the Hackney and Queen Elizabeth Group. This arrangement lasted until 1968 when the Queen Elizabeth was detached from Hackney and placed under the Board of Governors of the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street. The hospital functioned as part of the Hospitals for Sick Children until 1994 when Great Ormond Street became an NHS Trust. Queen Elizabeth was then managed by East London and The City Health Authority until April 1996 when it joined The Royal Hospitals NHS Trust (name later changed to Barts and The London NHS Trust). The Hackney Road site closed in 1998 when the bulk of its services transferred to The Royal London Hospital as the Queen Elizabeth Children's Service.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Administrative records, chaplaincy records, clinico-pathological minute books, title deeds and other legal records, financial records, patient records, nursing records, photographs and records received from unofficial sources.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

See Scope and content.

Conditions governing access:

Some material is restricted. Please contact the repository in the first instance.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copying and digitisation services are available for unrestricted material. Researchers should contact the repository in the first instance.

Finding aids:

See 'Detailed catalogue' link above.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Some of the records were transferred from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children in 1997 and 1998.

Allied Materials

Related material:

National Register of Archives: Click here to view NRA record

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Originally compiled by Julie Tancell as part of the RSLP AIM25 project. Updated by Clare Button, Archivist, School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London.

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:
June 2001, updated April 2020.