{{About|Brook General Hospital|other hospitals in Greenwich|Greenwich Hospital (disambiguation)}} {{EngvarB|date=November 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2017}} {{Infobox hospital | name = Brook General Hospital | org_group = Greenwich Health Authority | image = Converted Water Tower, former Brook Hospital - geograph.org.uk - 19608.jpg | image_size = | caption = The former hospital water tower | pushpin_map = United Kingdom London Greenwich | pushpin_map_caption = Location within Greenwich | pushpin_mapsize = | logo = <!-- optional --> | logo_size = <!-- optional --> | location = London, {{postcode|SE|18}}<br>United Kingdom | coordinates = {{coord|51.4721|0.0476|type:landmark_region:GB|display=inline,title}} | healthcare = NHS England | type = District General | speciality = <!-- if devoted to a speciality (ie not a broad spectrum of specialities) and Type=Specialist/Teaching --> | standards = <!-- optional if no national standards --> | emergency = Yes | affiliation = | patron = <!-- 'None' or the individual who acts as the hospital patron --> | beds = | founded = 1896 | closed = 1996 | website = | other_links = }} The '''Brook General Hospital''' (originally, 1896&ndash;1948, the '''Brook Fever Hospital''') was the westernmost of three hospitals simultaneously situated on Shooter's Hill in southeast London in the Royal Borough of Greenwich (the others were the Royal Herbert Hospital and the Memorial Hospital, Woolwich). It closed in 1996, and most of its buildings were subsequently demolished.

==History== thumb|left|Aerial view, {{circa|1930}}. Designed by architect Thomas Aldwinckle, the '''Brook Fever Hospital''' was one of five fever hospitals built during the 1890s by the Metropolitan Asylums Board.<ref name="Workhouse">{{cite web|title=The Brook Hospital, Shooter's Hill|url=http://www.workhouses.org.uk/MAB-Brook/|website=The Workhouse|accessdate=24 March 2016}}</ref> Its foundation stone was laid by Lady Galsworthy in July 1894, and the 488-bed hospital opened in 1896.<ref name="Lost">{{cite web|title=Brook General Hospital|url=http://ezitis.myzen.co.uk/brookgeneral.html|website=Lost Hospitals of London|accessdate=24 March 2016}}</ref>

The hospital design separated infectious areas of the Hospital from the non-infectious, and had two entrances separated by a porter's lodge; the east entrance was for infectious patients, the west for non-infectious staff and visitors.<ref name="Workhouse" /> Hospital wards were housed in a series of 2-storey pavilions built in terraces and connected by roofed walkways. There were 40 separate blocks covering 21 acres of the 29-acre site.<ref name="Chambers">{{cite book|last1=Chambers|first1=Veronika|last2=Chambers|first2=Fred|last3=Higgins|first3=Rob|title=Hospitals of London|date=2014|publisher=Amberley|isbn=9781445638270|page=102}}<!--|accessdate=24 March 2016--></ref> The hospital mainly catered for patients with scarlet fever (352 beds), enteric fever and diphtheria (112 beds).<ref name="Lost" />

During World War I, the hospital was requisitioned by the War Office for the treatment of military casualties, opening in September 1915 as the '''Brook War Hospital''', with 1000 beds. MAB nurses were replaced by nurses from the Queen Alexandra Imperial Military Nursing Service, and the War Hospital was equipped with two new operating theatres and an X-ray room. It ceased to be a War Hospital on 5 November 1919, having provided treatment for 414 officers and 30,080 other ranks during the war.<ref name="Workhouse"/><ref name="trail">{{cite web|title=The military hospitals at home|url=http://www.1914-1918.net/hospitals_uk.htm|website=The long, long trail|accessdate=24 March 2016}}</ref><ref name="Ayers">{{cite book|last1=Ayers|first1=Gwendoline|title=England's First State Hospitals and the Metropolitan Asylums Board, 1867–1930|url=https://archive.org/details/englandsfirststa0000ayer|url-access=registration|date=1971|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520017924|page=[https://archive.org/details/englandsfirststa0000ayer/page/230 230]}}<!--|accessdate=24 March 2016--></ref>

In 1930, with the dissolution of the MAB, the hospital came under London County Council control, providing 552 beds dealing with scarlet fever and measles.<ref name="Lost" />

In World War II, it joined the Emergency Medical Service, becoming a general hospital for service personnel and civilians, and providing treatment for the many air-raid casualties,<ref name="Lost" /> including victims of a V-2 rocket which hit the nearby Brook Hotel on 11 November 1944.<ref name="Blitzwalkers">{{cite web|title=The Time of the Rockets|url=http://blitzwalkers.blogspot.co.uk/2013_09_01_archive.html|website=Blitzwalkers|accessdate=24 March 2016}}</ref>

In 1948, it became part of the National Health Service, and was jointly managed with the nearby Memorial Hospital; medical beds were transferred from the Memorial to the Brook, which was eventually renamed the '''Brook General Hospital'''. During the 1950s, it also contained a training school for nurses for the Hospital for Sick Children in Great Ormond Street. An Accident and Emergency Department opened in the 1960s, built at the north of the site (it was to this unit that murdered Stephen Lawrence was taken and pronounced dead in April 1993).<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/jan/03/stephen-lawrence-doreen-mother-statement|title=Lawrence verdict: 'I thought Stephen was seriously hurt. But not fatally'|work=The Guardian|first=Vikram|last=Dodd|date=3 January 2012|accessdate=25 March 2016}}</ref> In 1971, June Jolly established a new children's unit at the hospital,<ref name=times>{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/june-jolly-zh35k2mkd|title=June Jolly|date=15 April 2016|work=The Times|access-date=8 November 2017}}</ref> fitting the wards and nurses with colourful curtains and aprons, and setting up a "care-by-parent" unit that encouraged parental involvement.<ref name=telegraph>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2016/04/12/june-jolly-nurse---obituary/|title= June Jolly, nurse - obituary |date=12 April 2016|work=The Daily Telegraph|accessdate=8 November 2017}}</ref>

In the mid-1990s, A&E services were transferred to the nearby military hospital (built in the 1970s on the site of the Shrapnel Barracks) – now the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, London (officially opened in March 2001) – and the Brook General Hospital closed.<ref name="Lost" />

Most of the hospital buildings were subsequently demolished and replaced by housing. The hospital's distinctive water tower remains a landmark, while the entrance lodge, administration block and steward's house have also been preserved.<ref name="Workhouse" /> An ambulance station continues to operate from its site on Shooters Hill Road.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://2pos.org.uk/2808/69280/greenwich-ambulance-station|title=Greenwich Ambulance Station|publisher=2POS|accessdate=26 May 2018}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

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Category:Hospital buildings completed in 1896 Category:Buildings and structures in Woolwich Category:Health in the Royal Borough of Greenwich Category:Hospitals established in 1896 Category:Defunct hospitals in London Category:Former buildings and structures in the Royal Borough of Greenwich Category:Hospitals disestablished in 1996 Category:1996 disestablishments in England Category:Buildings and structures demolished in 1996 Category:Demolished buildings and structures in London Category:Fever hospitals