The East Ham hospital was one of the Passmore Edwards buildings designed by Silvanus Trevail.
History
In the late 19th Century East Ham had a population of around 100,000 and was growing at the rate of 2,000 a year. The East Ham Council employees’ Hospital Committee, established on similar lines to the Hospital Saturday Fund paying weekly penny subscriptions, launched an appeal to build a hospital, hopefully to coincide with Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee . Unfortunately this attracted only a few hundred pounds so they approached Passmore Edwards . He offered to pay £4,000 for the construction of the hospital if the Committee would provide the site and appointed Trevail as architect.
Lady Twedlemouth laid the foundation stone on 26 July 1900 and the hospital was opened in 1901 with just 20 beds. Fortunately, unlike at Falmouth, the chosen site allowed for expansion and extensions were built in 1914 and in 1928, the hospital becoming part of the much larger East Ham Memorial hospital with100 beds.
Though the hospital was badly damaged by bombing in 1940 it became part of the NHS in 1948, and since then has been under the control of various Hospital boards and Trusts as the management of the health services developed. Today the hospital falls within the control of the Newham Community Health Care Trust. Set amongst a modern, otherwise purpose built, hospital The Passmore Edwards building is now home to both the Newham Community Mental Health Team on the ground floor and the Psychological Treatment Centre.
Originally a voluntary hospital, funded from subscriptions and donations, the need to maintain a healthy inflow of funds was essential. One of the ideas put forward was a charity football cup to be competed for by local teams, the Trophy being presented by the leading Doctor at the time, Dr McKettrick in 1904. This competition, one of the oldest in existence and now known as the East Ham Memorial Charity Football Cup Competition, has continued through the years providing much needed funds for the hospital and more recently the Sally Sherman Nursing Home, Alnwick Road, Newham.