So Where Did It Happen?

I've addressed when the RFH outbreak of 1955 happened but I've not touched upon where it happened. Yes I have - it happened at the Royal Free Hospital. Well yes...and no.

Crowley, Nelson and Stovin named eight RFH buildings affected by the outbreak…

In two cases, two buildings were in very close proximity to each other - the Lawn Road branch (referred to by Nelson, Stovin and Crowley as the ‘North Western’ branch) of the RFH and the Hampstead General Hospital were beside each other in Hampstead, and the RFH Grays Inn Road branch (the actual Royal Free Hospital, at the time) and the Eastman Dental Hospital were next door to each other, just south of King’s Cross station.

The current Royal Free more or less stands on the site of the old Lawn Road branch (the front faces Pond Street, Lawn Road is to the south east of the current building).

Just to the west of the current RFH is the new Pears Building, which is on the site of the old Hampstead General. An old ordnance survey map shows how close the hospitals were in 1955.

Half a mile (800m) to the south of the HGH/Lawn Road RFH branch buildings was the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Maternity Home at 40 Belsize Grove. The building was closed in 1977, eventually demolished and replaced by housing.

Roughly 1.3km (0.8m) to the west from the maternity home was the Preliminary Training School in College Crescent (1950s OS map). That building still stands and is now Palmers Lodge, a hostel situated near to Swiss Cottage tube station.

About three miles (4.8km) to the south east of the HGH/Lawn Road buildings were the other couple of RFH buildings beside each other - the actual Royal Free Hospital and the Eastman Dental Hospital, situated in Grays Inn Road. The sites are (as of time of writing) undergoing extensive change. The picture below is of the Eastman Dental Hospital with the old Royal Free Hospital beside it, covered with tarpaulins.

1.1km (0.7m) to the west of the old RF and Eastman Dental hospitals is the old Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital. The building is intact but is now used by the union Unison.

Finally, the Liverpool Road branch of the Royal Free Hospital. A mile (approximately 1.6km) to the north of the RFH Grays Inn Road, geographically it was somewhat of an outlier - all of the other buildings being in what is now the London borough of Camden, this one was (is) in Islington. Again, at least a fair amount of the original structure (or, at least, a fair amount that can be recognised) is there but, like the EGA maternity home, it is now residential.