Information taken from NHS Hospital Histories.
See links page.The 1962 Hospital Plan for England and Wales proposed that St. Alfege's Hospital should be redeveloped to form a District General Hospital of about 800 beds.
Greenwich District Hospital was the first complete hospital to be designed by the Ministry of Health's Hospital Design Unit acting as design consultants to the South East Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board. At that time, the traditional hospital building was a tall ward block over a podium of diagnostic, treatment and service departments. Instead of this, Greenwich District Hospital was built using the concept of ‘universal hospital space’ (large continuous horizontal areas clear of columns or service shafts, but with ready availability of services to any part of it). This style of structure led to a compact, low-rise design that had the advantage of easy transfer or evacuation of bedridden patients in case of fire. The design of the new building attracted enough attention to warrant an article in the British Medical Journal. To read the article, click here.
Work started on the site in November 1966. Phase I was opened in October 1969. Phase 2 was opened in December 1970 and Phase 3 was opened in 1972.
A more detailed history of Greenwich District Hospital.
The Greenwich and Deptford Union Workhouse was built in 1840 on the northern side of the site on Woolwich Road. Infirmary buildings were added to the south in the last quarter of the 19th century. The number of inmates reached 1 000. By 1962 the workhouse and the infirmary had become a general hospital of 670 beds.
The 1962 Hospital Plan for England and Wales proposed that St. Alfege's Hospital, Greenwich should be redeveloped to form a District General Hospital of about 800 beds. Up until 1962 most new hospitals had been built on large sites on the outskirts of town but the problem still facing the National Health Service was the large number of sub-standard hospitals in densely built up central areas.
In May 1963, the Minister of Health gave a press conference at which details of the new Greenwich District hospital were released. The main problem was how to fit an 800-bed hospital onto a site of less than 8 acres.
The construction methods would be revolutionary - all lateral engineering services were to be contained in a 6-foot gap between floor and ceiling of each pair of floors so that repairs and maintenance works could be carried out without disturbing ward or department routine. All wards would have natural light but the service departments e.g. x-ray, pathology and operating theatres would be in the centre and artificially lit.
The whole hospital was to be ventilated mechanically and none of the windows would open so that the air in the wards would be as ‘pure’ as possible.
Among the design criteria adopted were optimal relationships between departments, capacity for phased development, an economical and effective pattern of movement of people and objects, ease of growth and change and a capacity to build with a minimum of disturbances to the existing hospital. At that time the traditional solution for a restricted site would have been a tall ward block over a podium of diagnostic, treatment and service departments. Greenwich District Hospital used the idea of flexibility in use through "Universal hospital Space" --- large continuous horizontal areas clear of columns or service shafts with ready availability of services to any part of the hospital. This, together with the particular phasing requirements at Greenwich, led to a compact low-rise design that also had the advantage of easy horizontal transfer or evacuation of bedridden patients in case of fire.
The "Universal Hospital Space" took the form of a ground floor and two upper floors (each of 4.5 acres) and a lower ground floor mainly for car parking, supply and service functions that emerged at street level at the lower north end of the site. Between each floor is a service sub-floor linked by vertical shafts that also house the air conditioning plant with floor and ceiling slabs designed for easy penetration.
Many areas are internal but all in-patient bedrooms and most consulting rooms and offices have windows --- some of these look onto the 3 internal courtyards.
The three-storey rectangular block was designed by the Ministry of Health's hospital design unit acting as design consultants to the South-East Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board. This was the first complete hospital to be designed by this unit. In 1964 the cost was estimated to be about £6m pounds.
The planning of the project began at the end of 1962 and work started on site in November 1965. Phase 1 was opened in October 1969 and Phase 2 in December 1970.
Greenwich District Hospital closed on 31st March 2001. All facilities were transferred to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich, London SE18 4QH.
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