1903 The Royal Waterloo Hospital for Children & Women - London, UK - Dated Buildings and Cornerstones on Waymarking.com

The Royal Hospital for Children and Women

[See plates 11a and 5]

One of the earliest buildings in Waterloo Road was the Royal Universal Infirmary for Children. This institution was the successor of the Universal Dispensary for Sick and Indigent Children founded in 1816 by Dr. J. Bunnell Davis in premises in St. Andrew's Hill, Doctors' Commons. A four-storey building, two storeys being below the level of the road, was erected in 1823 at the north-east corner of Waterloo Road and Stamford Street, and was opened as a dispensary in the following year. (ref. 72) The design was made gratuitously by David Laing, architect of the Customs House. Although the institution enjoyed the patronage of various royal personages and of the Lord Mayor of London it was perpetually short of funds, and, until 1851, treatment was given only to out-patients, part of the building being let as a school. (ref. 47)

In 1851 a surgical ward was opened, and in 1852 arrangements were made with the trustees of the Hayles Estate for the reception of a certain number of poor women from the parish of Lambeth. (ref. 72)

The infirmary was built on land which was part of the triangular slip of ground bought by the Waterloo Bridge Company from Jesus College, Oxford, and assigned to the Duchy of Cornwall in exchange for ground given up to form the bridge approaches. In 1876 (ref. 47) the Prince of Wales sold the freehold to the trustees of the infirmary John Fisher Eastwood, Frederick Lincoln Bevan and the Rev. Frederic Tugwell and a new storey was added to the building. Five years later they acquired the freehold of the adjoining properties in Waterloo Road and Stamford Street. (ref. 47)

The hospital was entirely rebuilt in 1903–05, with the exception of the nurses’ home, which was completed in 1927. (ref. 73)
Architectural Description

The present hospital has five storeys and basement. It is of red brick with brown terra-cotta dressings and has a corner turret over the glazed-ware porch which bears the Royal Arms. On the Waterloo Road elevation an arcaded balcony serves each of the first, second and third floor wards.

The nurses' home adjoining is also of red brick with brown terracotta dressings. It has six storeys above the basement.

The firm of Messrs. Waring and Nicholson designed the hospital and the nurses' home and also prepared the scheme of conversion after the recent war for the nurses' home annexe in York Road opposite the York Hotel.

The present hospital was planned with the ground floor for administration purposes and the first, second and third floors as wards giving accommodation for two hundred beds. The entrance porch of glazed ware was the gift in 1905 of H. Lewis Doulton.

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Year of construction: 1903 Full inscription: This stone was laid by Her Royal Highness Helen Duchess of Albany October 26 1903. There follows a list of 20 dignitaries that were present. At the foot it shows: Waring & Nicholson as the Architects and Holliday and Greenwood Ltd as Builders Cross-listed waymark: Not listed

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