Catalogue description Records of QUEEN MARY'S MATERNITY HOME, Hampstead

The collection contains administrative, financial, patient and unofficial records, trust deeds and photographs.

Queen Mary's Maternity Home, Hampstead, London

Transferred to the Archives from Queen Mary's House and "Marie Celeste" Samaritan Society at various dates between 1985 and 1991.

During the First World War, Queen Mary's Needlework Guild was established with branches in many parts of the world, to make and deliver clothes and other items to the service men. At the end of the war, a considerable sum of money collected by the Guild was left unspent, and Queen Mary decided to use these funds to endow a maternity home, for the benefit of wives and children of service men. The Home opened in October 1919 in temporary premises at "Cedar Lawns", North End Road, Hampstead, a house provided by Lord Levenhulme. The foundation stone of the new building at Upper Heath, on a site again provided by Lord Levenhulme was laid on the 12th October 1921, and was designed to provide 16 beds. The new Home was occupied in July 1922. In August 1939, the Home moved to Eynsham Hall, Oxfordshire, but moved again to Freeland House, Oxfordshire, in the autumn of 1941. The Home returned to Hampstead in the winter of 1945-1946. On 1st April 1946, the management of the Home was taken over by London Hospital. On 1st February 1972, it was transferred to the Royal Free Hospital. With the closure of New End Hospital, Hampstead, in 1986 and its subsequent sale, funds became available for the development of Queen Mary House as a care for the elderly unit, opened in 1991.

• View Record
• View Record