Medical dates:

Medical character:

During WW1 auxiliary military hospitals varied in size.  One of the largest and best equipped was at Southall, organised by the Ealing Voluntary Aid Centre (comprising the Acton, Chiswick, Ealing, Hanwell, Southall, Alperton, Perivale and Greenford Voluntary Aid Detachments).

The hospital was established in the Maypole Institute on Margarine Road (later renamed Merrick Road).  The Institute, built in 1910 at a cost of £13,850, had been a recreation centre for the workforce of the Danish firm, Otto Monsted & Co, a margarine manufacturer and owner of the Maypole Dairy.  Employees paid 6d (2.5p) subscription per month to use the Institute.

In 1915 the workers gave up their Institute for the war effort and also helped to get it ready for its new purpose.  Monsted & Co paid for the heating of the building and the electric lighting, and also for an electrician to attend to the lighting and X-ray installation.  All the beds, bedding and other hospital equipment were provided by local generosity, while members of the Middlesex/6 Voluntary Aid Detachment provided services in various capacities.  Some women living locally were trained nurses and became day and night Sisters for each ward.  Other members of the Detachments possessed certificates in First Aid and home nursing, and worked under the Sisters as probationers.

The Hospital had 85 beds.  The building's large concert room was divided by wooden partitions about 7 feet high to make two wards, each with 24 beds for surgical cases.  Two other large rooms contained wards for medical and surgical cases.  The wards were named after the patron saints of Great Britain and Ireland - St George, St Andrew, St David and St Patrick.

Convalescent patients could relax in a recreation room, as well as in the large and well laid-out grounds.

As well as its own branch canal, the Maypole Dairy had its own railway sidings on the opposite side of the road, on which the main entrance of the Institute opened.  This enabled the wounded and sick to be brought by train almost to the door of the hospital.  The Institute was linked to the Royal Herbert Hospital, becoming one of its auxiliary hospitals for wounded men; it also received sick patients from the Territorial Force in Windsor and its neighbourhood.

By 1917 the Hospital had 107 beds and was affiliated to the Edmonton Military Hospital.  It had a Matron and 6 trained nurses.

The Maypole Institute ceased to be a hospital in 1919.  In 1920 it was given to the people of Southall by Monsted & Co, when it became the Southall Community Centre.

Present status (February 2010)

In July 2008 the building was sold by Ealing Council  for £2.2m to the Go Help Asia Trust, an Asian charity, despite objections from other groups in the area who would be without a centre for communal activities.  In October the Southall Community Association, a regular user of the Centre, were issued with a notice to quit the building.

The Centre has become somewhat dilapidated and is in urgent need of repair.  The Southall Community Association called for volunteers for this work.

Update:  August 2012

The building has been refurbished as a conference and events venue and is opening soon as The Centre.