The Middlesex Hospital was a hospital in the Fitzrovia area of London, England. The first Middlesex Hospital opened in 1745 as the Middlesex Infirmary in Windmill Street, London W1, named after the county of Middlesex. The Infirmary started with 18 beds to provide medical treatment for the poor. Funding came from subscriptions and in 1747, the hospital became the first in England to add 'lying-in' (maternity) beds.

The foundation stone for the second Middlesex Hospital, located on Mortimer Street, was laid in 1755 by the then President of the Hospital, the Earl of Northumberland and was opened in 1757 as The Middlesex Hospital. The Hospital was Incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1836, allowing it various benefits as a charity.

Over the years, extra wings were added but in 1924, it was decided that the building was about to collapse and something had to be done. The Duke of York, later King George VI, visited the Hospital to lay the foundation stone of the new building, on 26 June 1928. He returned to the Hospital on 29 May 1935 to open the new building. The Hospital had been completely rebuilt, on the same site and in stages, without being closed at any stage, paid for by more than £1 million of donations from members of the public.

Whilst part of the Bloomsbury Health Authority in the nineteen eighties, the Middlesex Hospital was also associated with:St. Peter's Hospital, Soho (urology); St. Paul's Hospital, Red Lion Square (skin and genito-urinary diseases); Soho Hospital for Women (gynaecological disease); Horton and Banstead hospitals (psychiatric disorders); Athlone House (geriatric care); St. Luke's (Woodside) Hospital (psychiatric disorders).

In 1992 the St. Peter's Hospitals were closed down and moved into new accommodation in the Middlesex Hospital, which itself was merged with University College London (UCL) Hospital in 1994. The Middlesex closed in December 2005. The main Hospital building in Mortimer Street was sold to developer Project Abbey (Guernsey) Ltd for £180m which was considerably more than the anticipated sale price due to the property boom ; in order to finance the UCL Hospital PFI scheme on Euston Road, and was demolished in the spring of 2008. Some of the peripheral buildings remain, and have been renovated for other uses by UCL or the NHS.

The building was used just before it was demolished in the film Eastern Promises. Its name in this film was changed to "Trafalgar Hospital" using an inscription matching the style and apparent age of the old legend above the main door.

The planned redevelopment of the Mortimer Street site is now in limbo after the withdrawal of the consortium led by the Candy brothers. The site is now in the hands of the nationalised Icelandic bank Kaupthing Bank.Candy and Candy had planned to redevelop the site into a 273-apartment luxury accommodation complex, named "NoHo Square.

In the latest installment in a long running saga, control for the development of the site appears to have been handed to Stanhope PLC, in a sale valued at a third of the price paid for the site by Kaupthing Bank. It appears that the plans for the Noho Square development have been shelved, but quite what will be built in its place remains to be seen.

It should be noted that although the county name "Middlesex" is common to all, there was no working connection between the Middlesex Hospital and the North Middlesex, Central Middlesex and West Middlesex hospitals.

See also

• North Middlesex Hospital
• West Middlesex Hospital

• John Raymond Hobbs

References

1. http://www.thecnj.co.uk/westend/2008/103108/wnews103108_01.html