Random Building
1872 – Cottage Hospital, Harrow on the Hill, London
Perspective view including ground & chamber plans, published in The Builder, November 2nd 1872. The Harrow Cottage Hospital was founded in 1866 by Dr. W. Hewlett. In 1868 a local benefactor, Charles Leaf, offered a piece of land in Lower Road, provided that the money could be found for a new hospital building. Fund-raising began immediately and, in 1872, the Hospital moved to its new premises, where it had 11 beds, an operating theatre and a dispensary, as well as two rooms for the resident staff.
The Hospital resembled a large private house with small and inconvenient wards on several floors. The staircase soon proved to be too narrow and steep to be able to move bed-ridden patients easily. A few days before its official opening, the Lady Manager, Constance Hewlett, discovered the builders had failed to provide a wash house. She converted the intended mortuary to a laundry, and the coal house became the new mortuary.
A replacement hospital was built in nearby Roxeth Hill and opened in 1907. This building became a private home and was destroyed by bombs during the Second World War.
Published August 5, 2009 | Last Updated April 19, 2012