| AdminHistory | The North London Hospital opened in 1834 to provide clinical experience for the students of the medical faculty of the new University of London (subsequently University College London): up to this point, the only clinical training available for those students took place at the University’s Dispensary on George Street. The Hospital was renamed University College Hospital in 1837, and in 1851 the name was changed again to North London and University College Hospital. It is not clear when the ‘North London’ part of the name was dropped, but it continued to be used in the Hospital’s annual reports until 1922.
The Hospital was immediately in great demand from both students and patients, and a South Wing was added in 1840, followed by a North Wing in 1846. Nevertheless, space was running out rapidly, even with the addition of a top floor in 1867, and it became clear that a new building would be needed. A design by Alfred Waterhouse was approved in 1896, and the new building, known as the Cruciform, opened in 1906.
At around this time, the University of London was reconstituted as a federal body. University College lost its legal independence, and the Hospital and Medical School were separated from the College, to be run henceforth by a Board of Governors, with only the pre-clinical Medical School remaining with the College. The National Dental Hospital merged with UCH in 1914, and the Royal Ear Hospital in 1920.
With the formation of the National Health Service in 1948, UCH became an NHS teaching hospital, and in 1994 it became part of the University College London Hospitals NHS Trust, along with the Middlesex Hospital, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital, and Hospital for Tropical Diseases. |