Catalogue description Records of ST. ANDREW'S HOSPITAL; Devons Road, Bromley-by-Bow, London, E3 3NT.

The collection includes administrative records, patient records, nursing records and photographs.

St Andrew's Hospital, Bromley-by-Bow, London

Transferred by Mrs. D. Old, Services Manager for Medical Services, and Mr. Humm, St. Andrew's Works Department, on various dates between June 1991 and June 1992, unless otherwise stated.

Founded in 1868 as the Poplar and Stepney Sick Asylum, as a result of the Metropolitan Poor Act of 1867 (30 and 31 Vic.c6), which gave authority to the Poor Law Board to order the combination of Unions and Parishes to provide asylums for the Sick Poor. Poplar and Stepney Unions formed one of six such Asylum Districts and administered the Asylum, built at Bromley-by-Bow along architectural lines favoured by Florence Nightingale, and opened in 1873. The Poplar and Stepney Sick Asylum District, who's Minutes (1868 - 1925) are held at the Greater London Record Office (ref: PSSA) administered the Asylum until the District was abolished in 1925.

The Asylum was renamed St. Andrew's Hospital in 1921 and was administered by the Metropolitan Asylums board from 1925 until 1933, at which time responsibility transferred to the London County Council. St. Andrew's became a N.H.S. Hospital in 1948 and was administered by the No. 8 Group, Bow Hospital Management Committee, until 1963, when the Group merged with the West Ham Group to form the Thames Group of Hospitals. From 1974 to 1982 the Hospital formed part of Newham Health District (though positioned in Tower Hamlets) under the City and East London Area Health Authority (Teaching) and since 1982 it has been administered by the Newham Health Authority.

The Hospital grew through 19th Century extensions to over 650 beds. A School of Nursing was established in in 1875 and nurses followed a three-year course for a certificate of training and sick cookery. By 1930 an optional maternity training course had been established and the nursing staff had expanded to over 200. The headquarters of Newham District School of Nursing transferred to St. Andrew's following the closure of Newham Maternity Hospital, Forest Gate, c.1985, and the School merged with in 1991 with the Princess Alexandra College of Nursing and Midwifery.

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