LOST HOSPITALS OF LONDON

Kingsbury Hospital
106 Honeypot Lane,  Kingsbury, NW9 9QY
Medical dates:

Medical character:
1901- 2007

Smallpox, Later, maternity.  Later, mental handicap
In 1901 the Willesden Urban District Council built a temporary smallpox hospital on a rented 10-acre plot bordering Honeypot Lane in northwest Kingsbury.  Some of the buildings were destroyed by fire in 1912.

In 1914 the Council bought the land and the Hospital was rebuilt in 1927.

In 1929 Willesden joined the County Council smallpox scheme and, in 1931, the District Council converted its smallpox hospital to a maternity hospital - the Willesden Maternity Hospital - with 31 beds.

Three years later the Hospital was extended by the addition of three pavilions so that it could cope with 1,000 births a year.  The extension was opened officially on 29th December 1934 by the obstetric and gynaecological surgeon Sir Comyns Berkeley.  The Hospital then had 64 beds and 52 cots - a labour block with 5 labour and 3 delivery beds (each in separate wards), an ante-natal ward with 9 beds, three lying-in blocks of 43 beds and an observation block of 4 cubicles.

The Hospital joined the NHS in 1948 under the control of the Central Middlesex Group Hospital Management Committee, part of the North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board.  The following year it was renamed the Kingsbury Maternity Hospital.

In 1952, under a Special Order made by the Minister of Health, its administration was transferred from the North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board to the Charing Cross Hospital (Teaching) Group, in order to facilitate the teaching of medical students.

In 1972 the Hospital closed and was refurbished as the Kingsbury Community Hospital, a specialist resource for people with mental handicap.  In 1974 it had 76 beds.

It was redeveloped in 1997, when it had 44 beds, with a 70-place day care unit, for patients with learning difficulties.

The Hospital closed in 2006.


Present status (April 2008)

In 2007 the site was redeveloped mainly for housing but a new hospital - the Kingswood Centre - was built on the northern part.   The Centre provides community and in-patient care for people with learning disabilities in Brent.

Entrance to Kingswood Centre Entrance to Kingswood Centre
The entrance to the Kingswood Centre.

new housing  new housing
New housing on Honeypot Lane.

new housing
New housing along Rose Bates Drive on the southern part of the site.
References (Accessed 29th June 2016)

(Author unstated) 1935 Willesden Maternity Hospital.  Sir Comyns Berkeley on ante-natal care.  British Medical Journal 1 (3861), 19.

(Author unstated) 1937 Willesden Maternity Hospital.  Public Health 50, 176.

(Author unstated) 1952 Untitled.  British Journal of Nursing (May), 44.

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