Catalogue description Records of ST. CLEMENT'S HOSPITAL, Bow Road, London, E3

The collection contains administrative, patient and nursing records, along with photographs, plans and miscellaneous items.

Most administrative records from the Hospital's establishment to 1948 are in London Metropolitan Archives Northampton Road, E.C.1.

St Clement's Hospital, 1936-1968, London

London Hospital (St Clement's), 1968-1974

Some of these records (SC/A/3/1 and SC/M/1/11) were among the archives of the London Hospital in September 1984. The remaining records were transferred from the St. Clement's Hospital to the archives on various dates in the summer and autumn of 1985.

The original buildings were erected in 1848 - 1849 as a workhouse for the Board of Guardians of the City of London Union. In 1874 it was converted into an infirmary for the same Union. With the reconstruction of Homerton Workhouse in 1909, Bow was superfluous to the Union's needs and was closed, but in 1912 it was re-opened as Bow Institution to treat the chronic sick. The London County Council took over the hospital in 1930 when the Board of Guardians was abolished; the number of beds was increased to 786. In 1933 a mental observation unit was opened. St. Clement's (so named from 1936) was badly damaged by bombs in August 1944. On the introduction of the National Health Service, the Hospital was taken over by the Bow (No. 8) Hospital Management Committee (itself replaced in 1963 by the Tames Group Hospital Management Committee)[cab] In 1959, it became exclusively psychiatric. Control of the Hospital passed to the Governors of the London Hospital in 1968, and its designation was altered to the London Hospital (St. Clement's). In 1974 it became part of the Tower Hamlets Health District.

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