Catalogue description TRINITY HOSPICE, CLAPHAM (previously THE HOSTEL OF GOD)

Minutes, annual reports, financial records, patients registers, miscellaneous records and additional records

Trinity Hospice, Clapham, Surrey

Open; committee minutes closed for 30 years.

Depositor: Trinity Hospice

Date: Dec. 1992

Condition: Deposit

See Also: Trinity Hospice, A History of Care 1891 - 1991 Sarah Lush

Introduction

In 1891 an appeal published in the Times by the anglican order of St. Jame's servants of the Poor, and supported by William Hoare of the banking family pointed out that there were no institutions for the care of people 'neither curable nor incurable, but simply dying.' The £2,000 raised by the appeal ennabled the Free Home for the Dying to be set up at 80 - 82, The Chase, Clapham.

In 1896 the nursing function passed to the order of St. Margarets, East Grinstead; by 1899 £7,000 had been raised to purchase The Elms, 29, Clapham Common North Side; nos. 30, 31 and 32 were acquired later. In 1910 the hospice was renamed the Hostel of God. In 1939 the hospice evacuated to Lindfield, West Sussex, but returned to Clapham Common in 1948.

In 1948 the council took a deliberate decision to remain outside the National Health Service and depend upon private donations for its funding, in particular the patronage of the Royal family and donations from the Freemasons. In 1976 St. Margaret's convent gave up its nursing role; the council was unable to find a successor order to carry our nursing, and decided to recruit its staff direct and continue the hospice as a secular, independent institution; in 1980 it was renamed the Trinity Hospice.

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