University College Hospital (UCH) is a teaching hospital in the

Fitzrovia Fitzrovia () is a district of central London, England, near the West End. The eastern part of area is in the London Borough of Camden, and the western in the City of Westminster. It has its roots in the Manor of Tottenham Court, and was urban ...

area of the London Borough of Camden, England. The hospital, which was founded as the North London Hospital in 1834, is closely associated with

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

(UCL), whose main campus is situated next door. The hospital is part of the

University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) is an NHS foundation trust based in London, United Kingdom. It comprises University College Hospital, University College Hospital at Westmoreland Street, the UCH Macmillan Cancer ...

The hospital is on the south side of Euston Road and its tower faces Euston Square tube station on the east side.

Warren Street tube station Warren Street is a London Underground station, located at the intersection of Tottenham Court Road and Euston Road and named after adjoining Warren Street. It is part of the Northern and Victoria lines and although it is relatively used less t ...

lies immediately west and the major Euston terminus station is beyond 200 metres east, just beyond Euston Square Gardens.

History

In 1826 the London University began emphasising the importance of having medical schools attached to hospitals. Before the hospital opened, only

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

universities offered medical degrees, and as a consequence relatively few doctors actually had degrees. The hospital was founded as the North London Hospital in 1834 in order to provide clinical training for the "medical classes" of the university, after a refusal by the governors of the

Middlesex Hospital Middlesex Hospital was a teaching hospital located in the Fitzrovia area of London, England. First opened as the Middlesex Infirmary in 1745 on Windmill Street, it was moved in 1757 to Mortimer Street where it remained until it was finally clos ...

to allow students access to that hospital's wards. It soon became known as University College Hospital. In 1835,

Robert Liston Robert Liston (28 October 1794 – 7 December 1847) was a British surgeon. Liston was noted for his speed and skill in an era prior to anaesthetics, when speed made a difference in terms of pain and survival. He was the first Professor of Cl ...

became the first professor of clinical surgery at UCH, and the first major operation under ether in Europe was conducted at the hospital by Liston on 21 December 1846. UCH was split from UCL in 1905, and a new hospital building designed by Alfred Waterhouse, known as the Cruciform Building, was opened in 1906 on Gower Street. UCH merged with the National Dental Hospital in 1914, and the Royal Ear Hospital in 1920. George Orwell married Sonia Brownell in 1949, and later died 21 January 1950, in room 65 of the hospital. The hospital was run by the Camden and Islington

Area Health Authority Area health authorities were 90 bodies responsible for administering the National Health Service, established in England by the National Health Service Reorganisation Act 1973 in 1974. Each covered a geographical population which matched a Local Go ...

from 1974. In 1994, UCH became part of the University College London Hospitals NHS Trust. The hospital site at the Cruciform Building was closed in 1995, despite strikes and an occupation in 1993. The building was purchased by UCL, for use as the home for the Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research and the teaching facility for UCL bioscience and medical students

UCL Medical School UCL Medical School is the medical school of University College London (UCL) and is located in London, United Kingdom. The School provides a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate medical education programmes and also has a medical educatio ...

. A new 75,822 m² hospital, procured under the Private Finance Initiative in 2000, designed by Llewelyn Davies Yeang and built by a joint venture of AMEC and

Balfour Beatty Balfour Beatty plc () is an international infrastructure group based in the United Kingdom with capabilities in construction services, support services and infrastructure investments. A constituent of the FTSE 250 Index, Balfour Beatty works acr ...

at a cost of £422 million, opened in 2005. The sculpture '' Monolith and Shadow'' made from a large polished piece of Brazilian granite was placed outside the main entrance to the new hospital in 2005. In October 2006, the hospital was nominated and made the

Building Design Building design refers to the broadly based architectural, engineering and technical applications to the design of buildings. All building projects require the services of a building designer, typically a licensed architect. Smaller, less complica ...

shortlist for the inaugural

Carbuncle Cup The Carbuncle Cup was an architecture prize, given annually by the magazine ''Building Design'' to "the ugliest building in the United Kingdom completed in the last 12 months". It was intended to be a humorous response to the prestigious Stirlin ...

, awarded to "the ugliest building in the United Kingdom completed in the last 12 months", which was ultimately awarded to Drake Circus Shopping Centre in Plymouth. Facilities management services are provided by

Interserve Interserve is a British construction and support services business based in Reading, Berkshire, which went into administration in 2019 and which is expected to be wound up in 2024. At that time, the group generated revenue of £2.2 billion and h ...

. In November 2008, the £70 million Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Wing was opened, allowing the hospital to offer all women's health services in one place (except some breast and gynaecology services).

Services

the following services were provided at the hospital: * Accident and emergency *

Cancer care Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the study, treatment, diagnosis and prevention of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''. The name's etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγκος (''ó ...

(see UCH Macmillan Cancer Centre) * Clinical haematology including stem cell transplantation * Critical care *

Dermatology Dermatology is the branch of medicine dealing with the skin.''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.'' Random House, Inc. 2001. Page 537. . It is a speciality with both medical and surgical aspects. A dermatologist is a specialist medica ...

* Endocrinology * General medicine *General

neurology Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal ...

* General surgery * Gynaecology *

Ophthalmology Ophthalmology ( ) is a surgical subspecialty within medicine that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of eye disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a medic ...

* Orthopaedics *

Paediatrics Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until the ...

and

adolescents Adolescence () is a transitional stage of Developmental biology, physical and psychological Human development (biology), development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majo ...

* Rheumatology The hospital has 665 in-patient beds, 12 operating theatres and houses the largest single critical care unit in the

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

. The

Accident and Emergency department An emergency department (ED), also known as an accident and emergency department (A&E), emergency room (ER), emergency ward (EW) or casualty department, is a medical treatment facility specializing in emergency medicine, the acute care of pati ...

sees approximately 120,000 patients a year. It is a major teaching hospital and a key location for the

. It is also a major centre for medical research and part of both the UCLH/UCL Biomedical Research Centre and the UCL Partners academic health science centre. The

urology Urology (from Greek οὖρον ''ouron'' "urine" and '' -logia'' "study of"), also known as genitourinary surgery, is the branch of medicine that focuses on surgical and medical diseases of the urinary-tract system and the reproductive org ...

department moved to University College Hospital at Westmoreland Street, formerly the Heart Hospital, in 2015.UCLH Web site: Refurbishment of the Heart Hospital, 18 May 2015, retrieved 15 September 2015
"The Heart Hospital is being refurbished and will reopen at the beginning of the summer to provide thoracic surgery and urology services ... it will be called University College Hospital at Westmoreland Street."

Notable staff

* Sir Thomas Lewis, cardiologist at the hospital *

Marcus Beck Marcus Beck (14 October 1843 – 21 May 1893) was a British professor of surgery at University College Hospital. He was an early proponent of the germ theory of disease and promoted the discoveries of Louis Pasteur, Robert Koch, and Joseph List ...

* Agatha Christie *

Jean Smellie Dr Jean McIldowie Smellie DM FRCP HonFRCPCH (14 May 1927 – 14 September 2020) was a British paediatrician. Smellie studied medicine at St Hugh's College, Oxford, and then at University College Hospital. From 1952 to 1961, she underwent ...

* Elizabeth Joan Stokes (1937–40, 1944–77) * Ernst Chain Nobel Prize winner

References

Sources

* Merrington, William, (1976) ''University College Hospital and its Medical School: a history'', Heinemann

External links