IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0103 UCL/MED/H
Held at: University College London
Title: University College Hospital
Date(s): 1824-1997
Level of description: sub-fonds
Extent: 227 volumes, 34 boxes
Name of creator(s): University College Hospital
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
University College London (before 1836 known as the University of London) possessed a medical faculty from when it was established in 1828. At first students gained their clinical experience in a University Dispensary, but this building was not adequate and could not be turned into a hospital. In 1832 it was decided to establish a hospital of 100 beds, which was capable of extension. The building was financed through public appeals and fees of students. The foundation stone was laid in 1833 and in 1834 the North London Hospital was opened. Robert Liston, later becoming the first person in England to perform an amputation under anaesthesia, was the first Professor of Clinical Surgery. Joseph Lister, who later revolutionized surgery through his work on infection and antisepsis, was a student at the Hospital. In 1837 the name of the hospital was changed to University College Hospital. A southern extension was added to the hospital in 1841 and a northern one in 1846. In 1851 the hospital name again changed, to North London and University College Hospital. There does not appear to be a definite time at which the North London part of the title was dropped. Due to the increase in students and patients the Hospital needed to be extended. In the 1860s and 1870s various modifications were carried out. However, this was not enough and in 1877 a Committee of the Council of the College and Hospital, as well as the Medical Committee, decided to rebuild the Hospital completely. Discussion and planning went on for several years, but money was a problem. The College authorities donated some funds and various appeals were launched, but the bulk of the money was provided by a donation from Sir John Blundell Maples, Baronet, head of the furniture business in Tottenham Court Road, London. The new Hospital was completed in 1905 and officially opened in 1906. University College was having financial problems and it was felt that some of the problems would be solved if the College and the Hospital were separated. This was achieved legally by the University College Transfer Act 1905. By this Act the Hospital and the clinical Medical School were to be under the control of a new Board of Governors, while the pre-clinical School remained with the College. The actual separation took place on 1 January 1907. The National Dental Hospital became incorporated with UCH in 1914 and the Royal Ear Hospital in 1920. The Hospital remained with the Medical School until the National Health Service Act of 5 July 1948, when the status of University College Hospital was changed to that of a National Health Service teaching hospital. The General Committee ceased to exist and the financial responsibility passed from the Corporation to the Minister of Health and the statutorily appointed Board of Governors. The NHS Act also heralded the formation of the University College Hospital group, as St Pancras Hospital and the Hospital for Tropical Diseases were transferred to UCH Board of Governors. The National Temperance Hospital joined the UCH group in 1968. In 1974 UCH became one of the hospitals in the South Camden (Teaching) District Health Authority. Due to the reorganization of the NHS in 1982, the Hospital came under the Bloomsbury District Health Authority, along with the Middlesex Hospital. The two Hospitals were bound together under the same administrative unit. In 1994 the Hospital became part of the University College London Hospitals NHS Trust, which brought together University College Hospital, the Middlesex Hospital, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital, Hospital for Tropical Diseases, the St Peter's Group of Hospitals, and lately the Eastman Dental Hospital and the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery additionally. For a detailed account of the Hospital see W R Merrington University College Hospital and its Medical School: a history (Heinemann, London, 1976).
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Archives, 1824-1997, of University College Hospital, including official administrative records: minutes of main committees and sub-committees, 1834-1987, including the Medical Committee, Medical Executive Committee, Central Medical Committee, General Committee, Board of Governors, House and Finance Committee, Samaritan Fund Trustees, Radiological Committee, Physicians Standing Sub-Committee, Surgeons Standing Sub-Committee, Building Committee, Nursing Committee, Royal Ear Hospital Committees, and various others; Committee papers other than minutes, 1901-1948, including agenda books for committees, Hospital Funds and Trusts Committee report for 1833-1898, Sir Donald Currie Donation Committee, Appeals Committee, and Hospital Committee Proceedings Book; legacy papers, 1859-1933, including copies of wills, correspondence about legacies, accounts, and legal papers; general files and volumes, 1866-1968, including correspondence often concerning buildings and endowments, reports, accounts, extracts of minutes, property and legal papers, appointment book for resident medical staff, nominal ledgers, Dental Hospital papers, and various other papers; personnel records, 1916-[1981], including circulars concerning hospital staff, lists of staff at consultant level, establishment of Medical and Dental Officers, and staff appointments; Almoners Department convalescence registers, 1964-1974; King Edward's Hospital Fund for London, 1903-1944, including statistical reports on the ordinary expenditure of London hospitals, reports on hospital accounts, and annual reports.
The archive also contains: medical records, 1824-1976, including case registers under name of physician, surgical drawings, Resident Medical Officer's report books, anaesthetic books, and registers of deaths; Dental Hospital records, 1877-1974, including minutes and committee papers, annual reports, returns to the King Edward's Hospital Fund and to the Metropolitan Hospital Sunday Fund, transfer document of the National Dental Hospital to University College Hospital, surgical case book, and Medical Superintendent's report book; Temperance Hospital legacies volumes, 1904-1949; nursing administration records, 1925-[1959], including records of the Preliminary Training School for Nurses and the School of Nursing prospectuses; Royal Ear Hospital records, 1837-1947, including minutes of Board of Governors, Committee of Management and Departmental Committee, annual reports and accounts, and correspondence, some with representatives of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, the King of the Belgians and King Edward concerning their patronage of the Royal Ear Hospital; associated material, 1917-1975, including papers of the Beyond Seas Association for the Reception of Officers and Relatives from Beyond the Seas, incorporating the Royal Club for Ladies from Beyond the Seas, the Canadian and New Zealand Officers Clubs, and papers of W R Merrington, author of University College Hospital and its Medical School: a history (Heinemann, London, 1976); miscellaneous material and ephemera, 1837-1997, including visitors books, press cuttings about the Hospital, appeal brochures, bed endowment certificates, and other records.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
Arranged as indicated in Scope and content.
Conditions governing access:
The bulk of the records is held in University College London Special Collections, but some later material is held in University College London Records Office, where it may be consulted by appointment. A 30 year closure period is applied to administrative and committee papers, 80 years for student and staff records, and 100 years for personal medical records.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Normal copyright restrictions apply.
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
Draft handlist.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Transferred from University College Hospital.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
Records of University College Hospital Medical School (Ref: UCL/MED/HMS) and Dental School (Ref: UCL/MED/HDS) are also held.
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Archivist's note: Sources: University College Hospital 1833-1983 (University College Hospital, 1983); Negley Harte and John North The world of UCL 1828-1990 (UCL, 1991); Rickman J Godlee Past, present and future of the School for Advanced Medical Studies of University College London (John Bale, Sons and Danielsson Ltd, London, 1907). Compiled by Annabel Dodds as part of the RSLP AIM25 project.
Date(s) of descriptions: Nov 2000