Medical dates:

Medical character:

The buildings of the French Protestant Hospital in Bath Street had become uneconomical to repair by the mid 19th century and the Directors of the Hospital decided to rebuild the almshouses on a new site.   In 1862 they purchased three acres of land in South Hackney for £3,600.

The new French Protestant Hospital opened in June 1865.  Built in a kind of Gothic style, it resembled a small French chateau.  It had accommodation for 40 women and 20 men, and was staffed by a Steward and his wife, together with nurses and servants.  As well as spacious Day Rooms, there were a Library and an apsidal chapel.

Inmates were encouraged not to be idle but to make themselves useful by helping towards the running of the institution.

In 1887, to mark her Jubilee, Queen Victoria was presented with a black silk dress made by 12 female inmates of the Hospital, all weavers.

In 1934 the Hospital was threatened with a compulsory purchase order by the LCC, but WW2 intervened.  In 1941 the inmates were evacuated and the building requisitioned.  It then became a Day Nursery for mothers working for the war effort.

During the war the building was damaged by bombs.

After the war, because of the difficulty of regaining repossession of the property and the threatened compulsory purchase order, the Directors of the Hospital decided to buy a large country house in Sussex and move the almshouse there.

In 1947 Compton's Lea, near Horsham, a large Victorian house in 10 acres of land, was purchased.

The Hospital closed in 1949.


Present status (March 2009)

The South Hackney building was taken over by St Victoire's Convent School in 1949.  In 1973 it became an annexe for the Lower School of the Cardinal Pole Catholic School (the Upper School was in Kenworthy Road). 

The original Hospital buildings in Bath Street (off Old Street) have been demolished.  Their site is now occupied by St Luke's C of E Primary School.

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After its move to Compton's Lea (now demolished), the Hospital became financially inviable as occupancy was low.  In April 1956 the Directors decided to convert Theobald Square - a square of small early Victorian terraced houses off Rochester High Street in Kent - into almshouses for the elderly.  The first 19 apartments opened in September 1959.  Theobald Square was officially renamed La Providence.  The houses are Grade II listed.

Update:  March 2015

In 2012 both parts of St Victoire's Convent School moved to a new £26m building in Morning Lane.  In 2014 the former Hospital building became the Mossbourne Academy.