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In 1716 Henry Hoare, a banker, William Wogan a writer on religious subjects,
Robert Witham a brewer and Patrick Cockburn a former curate decided to open the
Westminster Public Infirmary in Petty France London. The demand for the
facility which opened in 1720 was overwhelming and larger premises in
Chapel Street were opened in 1724. By 1732 the Governors were forced to
seek an even larger building. The majority of the Governors favoured a
house in Castle Lane but a minority preferred Lanesborough House at Hyde Park
Corner and the new St George's Hospital was established there with a bed
compliment of thirty, expanding to two hundred and fifty within twelve years. A
century after the hospital was first opened, it was rebuilt and continued to
flourish with the addition of the Atkinson Morley's legacy which enabled the
building of a convalescent home hospital in Wimbledon. By the 1930's it was
apparent that the Hyde Park site was too small to cope with the needs of modern
medicine and after the establishment of the NHS in 1948, Aneurin Bevan its
founder announced that St George's would be rebuilt on the site of the Grove and
Fountain Hospitals in Tooting South London. The final moves from the Hyde Park
Corner site took place in 1980 and St George's continues to thrive to this day,
with facilities being greatly expanded in the late 1980's with the closure and
transfer of services from the St James' Hospital Balham to the new St George's
St James' Wing. Services have continued to expand through the 1990's and
currently under the Government's Private Finance Initiative a new £45 million
purpose built Cardiac and Neuro Sciences facility is under
construction at the Knightsbridge Wing end of the site, ensuring that the
principles and traditions which were established by Messers Hoare, Wogan, Witham
and Cockburn some three centuries ago continue into the 21st Century.
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