A Timely Look Back At Guildford’s St Luke’s Hospital

Published on: 10 Dec, 2018
Updated on: 10 Dec, 2018

By David Rose

A SUPERB collection of photos show former staff who once worked at Guildford’s busy St Luke’s Hospital. It is timely to look back on these now in 2018, a year in which the NHS has marked its 70th anniversary

Situated off Warren Road on the edge of Charlotteville, St Luke’s provided a range of inpatient and outpatient services that included obstetrics and gynaecology, a geriatric department, maternity ward and a regional radiotherapy and oncology centre.

Doris Laverty was a trainee nurse from 1939-42. This photo was taken by a recovering American GI who was a patient at the hospital. Click on pictures to enlarge in a new window

The Spike Heritage Centre, that occupies the former casual ward of the Guildford Union Workhouse, itself the forerunner of the hospital, has a growing archive relating to St Luke’s. The pictures here are some of those its volunteer archivists have collected from local NHS archives, former hospital staff and individuals.

Some of the people featured are known, but there are many more whose identity would be welcomed.

Nurses on a maternity ward with Sister Noreen Eldridge who spent most of her career at St Luke’s Hospital. The picture is believed to have been taken at St Thomas’ Hospital.

In 1930 the old Guildford Union Workhouse and its infirmary became the responsibility of Surrey County Council. It was first named Warren Road Hospital, then renamed St Luke’s Hospital on April 1, 1945, after a tin chapel in nearby Addison Road of the same name, with St Luke being the patron saint of physicians. 

In 1948 the hospital was incorporated into the National Health Service, with its own 70th anniversary being widely celebrated this year.

In 1952, a clinical union was formed with Guildford’s other general hospital, the Royal Surrey County Hospital, then in Farnham Road. St Luke’s expanded and finally the stigma of being a former workhouse infirmary began to disappear.

Nurses on Florence Desmond Ward in 1967.

The Nurses’ Preliminary Training School was built in 1956 and radiographers, operating department practitioners and midwives were all trained on site. St Luke’s also became home to the district’s pathology service, with a public health laboratory, plus haematology and clinical biochemistry departments.

Dr Robert Bingham McMillan was physician superintendent from 1947-68. This photo was taken later in his career, believed to be in the early 1960s.

Dr Robert Bingham McMillan was a well-known medical superintendent at the hospital taking up his position in 1947. He pioneered the first day hospital for the elderly in the UK at St Luke’s. He believed that loneliness in old age led to mental deterioration and also thought that no one should have to travel more than five miles to attend their local day hospital.

Matron Coyle with some of her staff in 1958.

In 1963 a large fundraising campaign took place to install a Betatron radiotherapy machine to fight cancer, and Dr McMillan was on the campaign’s executive committee. The machine, which had been developed in Switzerland, was to be the first of its kind in the UK. More than £200,000 was raised through public subscription over an intense two-year period to pay for it.

It was an amazing effort by local people, with actress Florence Desmond, who lived at Ripley, playing a major role. Money poured in from young and old, and rich and poor alike.

The Betatron radiotherapy machine being tested in 1966.

The Betatron, with its massive 35 million electron volts, was able to concentrate and focus more efficiently on the areas of the body affected. To prevent the escape of radiation, the building the Betatron was housed in required 1,000 cubic yards of concrete. Steel rods used in its construction, if laid end to end, would have stretched 44 miles and weighed about 50 tons.

The console in the Betatron building in 1966 – its first year of full operation.

By January 1980 centralising services at the then new Royal Surrey County Hospital on the edge of Guildford hospital was being planned. 

However, St Luke’s continued to provide a wide range of outpatients services and remained particularly busy as it housed the departments of rheumatology and rehabilitation, obstetrics and gynaecology as well as an enlarged geriatric department and of course, the important regional radiotherapy and oncology centre. The diagnostic radiology, physiotherapy and occupational therapy departments continued their work on-site, along with the public health laboratory and the medical photography and illustration department. 

The site at Warren Road was always earmarked for closure. In 1991 the older main building of the hospital was closed and the inpatient and outpatient departments transferred to the Royal Surrey County Hospital, which by then had been relocated at Egerton Road. 

On April 1, 1991, St Luke’s Hospital and the Royal Surrey became a joint self-governing trust within the NHS. 

A telephone service was installed in 1960 and was a gift donated by the League of friends.

The radiotherapy was the last department to leave St Luke’s in November 1996. The site was then sold to make way for 257 homes.

In fact, some parts of the former workhouse still exist. One being the former casual ward building that gave a bed for the night to tramps and vagrants. It was given Grade II listed status in November 1999 and is now a popular heritage and community centre run by the Charlotteville Jubilee Trust, an independent self-funded organisation. 

The Spike is open for business!

Called The Spike, it is open to visitors on Tuesdays and Saturdays from January to November and also on weekdays by prior arrangement – ideal for groups and school parties. A guided tour of the former casual ward and its original cells gives a fascinating glimpse into the past, plus there is an exhibition with medical artefacts (many from St Luke’s Hospital itself) and photographs that chart the transition of the site from a workhouse infirmary to an NHS hospital.

For more details call The Spike’s general manager John Redpath on 01483 598420, or send an email to heritage@charlotteville.co.uk

If you are planning a visit, check out The Spike’s excellent credentials on Trip Advisor or visit The Spike website at www.guildfordspike.co.uk

And… it is also open on Christmas Day morning! Tours start at 10.30am and 11am, lasting an hour with seasonal refreshments afterwards. Tickets at £10 are available from Guildford Tourist Information Centre. Call 01483 444333.

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