St Olave's Hospital

In 1865 the Rotherhithe Workhouse was denounced in The Lancet in its demands for poor law medical reform. There was only one paid nurse, with four pauper assistants.^[1] Nurse Matilda Beeton described filth and neglect "where many sick patients were dirty, their bodies crawling with vermin".^[2] The Infirmary of St Olave's Union was established by Order of the Local Government Board in 1875.^[3][4]

After being known as the Bermondsey and Rotherhithe Hospital in the 1920s,^[5] the facility was renamed St Olave's Hospital in 1930 and transferred from the Bermondsey Board of Guardians to the London County Council.^[6] It had 687 beds at that time.^[6] In 1948, with the formation of the National Health Service, St Olave's came under the management of the Bermondsey and Southwark Hospital Management Committee.^[6] It finally closed in 1985.^[6] The site has since been redeveloped as a residential street known as Ann Moss Way.^[6]

The actor Michael Caine was born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite Jr. on 14 March 1933 at St Olave's Hospital, and there is a blue plaque to that effect on the former gate house at the entrance to the hospital site.^{[7][8][9][10]}