Catalogue description St Leonard's and St Matthew's Hospitals

Records Of St Leonard's Hospital II, formerly St Leonard's Institution, formerly Shoreditch Workhouse, Kingsland Road, Hoxton, London N1.

For information relating to Shoreditch Workhouse before 1863 see the parish records of St Leonard's Shoreditch, especially the minute books and letter books of the Trustees of the Poor 1774-1859 (ref. P91/LEN/7-35) and workhouse registers 1788-1862 (ref. P91/LEN/1335-1347). For the administration of Shoreditch Workhouse and Infirmary 1867-1930 and for registers of inmates in the workhouse and infirmary see the records of Shoreditch Board of Guardians. For the management of St Leonard's Hospital and Institution 1930-1948 see the minutes and papers of the L.C.C. Central Public Health Committee, later the Hospitals and Medical Services Committee 1929-1948 (ref. LCC/MIN/2207-2272) and the minutes of its St Leonard's Hospital Sub-Committee 1930-1948 (ref. LCC/MIN/2633-2636). For a plan of the hospital and institution and a description of the buildings prepared in 1929 see LCC/AR/CB/3/1. For King Edward's Hospital Fund reports and papers 1947-1967 see A/KE/735/9 and A/KE/738/14.

Records of the administration of St Leonard's Hospital under the National Health Service registers of patients at St Leonard's Hospital I (and after 1940 the combined St Leonard's Hospital) 1885-1969 are in the care of St Bartholomew's Hospital Archives Department.

Shoreditch Infirmary

St Leonard's Hospital

• Shoreditch, Middlesex
• Shoreditch, London
• Health services
• Patients

Shoreditch Workhouse and Shoreditch Infirmary (later St Leonard's Hospital I) occupied adjoining parts of the same site which stretched from Hoxton Street in the west to Kingsland Road in the east. The buildings were erected in about 1865 to replace an earlier workhouse. The workhouse (later the institution) occupied the eastern part of the site immediately behind the Board of Guardians offices which fronted on Kingsland Road. The infirmary occupied the western portion of the site adjoining Hoxton Street. An annexe to the infirmary was built in 1884 in the north east corner of the site next to Nuttall Street.

When the functions of the Boards of Guardians were transferred to the London County Council in 1930, St Leonard's Hospital had certified accommodation for 556 patients, while the workhouse (by then known as St Leonard's House) had certified accommodation for 424. The L.C.C. Architect considered that most of the ward blocks were badly planned lacking cross ventilation (LCC/AR/CB/3/1).

On 1 April 1938 the L.C.C. completed its policy of removing its hospitals entirely from the ambit of the Poor Law by the appropriation of the remaining six institutions which accommodated chronic sick patients and which were within the curtilages of general hospitals. These included St Leonard's Institution which was renamed St Leonard's Hospital II to distinguish it from the neighbouring general hospital of the same name, which was to be known as St Leonard's Hospital I. By 1938 the total bed complement of the two hospitals had been reduced to 649 of which 549 were sick beds. (L.C.C. Annual Report of the County Medical Officer of Health for 1938).

Plans by the L.C.C. to rebuild the hospitals ended with the outbreak of war in 1939. The hospitals suffered considerable bomb damage with the destruction of part of the main block and one of the three nurses' homes. By 1948, when St Leonard's Hospital became part of the National Health Service as one of the Central Group of hospitals, the two hospitals were being managed as one general hospital, much reduced in size. In 1956 the hospital had 192 beds, with the possibility of opening additional wards to provide a total of 250 beds, if the extra nursing staff could be made available (A/KE/735/9).

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