New Cross Hospital, Deptford

The hospital was opened by the Metropolitan Asylums Board (MAB) on 17 March 1877 as Deptford Hospital. Its purpose at that time was as a fever hospital treating patients suffering from smallpox, of which there was an epidemic at the time. It was one five fever hospitals – the others were in Fulham, Hampstead (site now occupied by the Royal Free Hospital), Homerton (site of Homerton University Hospital) and Stockwell (now Lambeth Hospital) – forming a ring around central London, and shared the same architects as the Fulham hospital (J Walker and W Crickman).^[1]

In 1885, its name was changed to the South Eastern Fever Hospital. The hospital was expanded between 1902 and 1906.^[2] In 1908, the facilities included 488 beds and its site covered an area of 10 acres (4.0 ha).^[3] It was transferred from the MAB to control by London County Council in 1930 and continued to be a fever hospital until 1941.^[1]

It was given the name New Cross General Hospital around 1949, soon after the creation of the National Health Service (NHS), and after the NHS closed it for a time it re-opened in 1952 as a satellite for Guy's Hospital. By 1982, it comprised 269 beds and was mainly used by geriatric patients.^[2] It closed as a hospital around 1991,^[4][5][a] but southern parts of the site to the north of Wardalls Grove remained in NHS use until at least 2004.^[1]

Notable people connected with the hospital included:

• James Niven, physician at the hospital^[6]