Evelina London Children's Hospital

Plaque at the site of the old hospital in Southwark Bridge Road

A mother and daughter visit a small boy at the hospital, 1882

The hospital was founded in 1869 (as Evelina Hospital for Sick Children) by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, whose wife, Evelina, and their child had died in premature labour.[1] It was established in a purpose-built hospital in Southwark Bridge Road, Southwark, opposite what was originally the headquarters of the London Fire Brigade at 94 Southwark Bridge Road.[1] It was brought under the management of Guy's Hospital in 1947 and became part of the National Health Service in 1948.[1] In 1976 the original hospital building was closed, and the children's wards were moved to the newly built Guy's Tower.[1]

In 1999 a decision was made to re-establish Evelina Children's Hospital as a new specialist hospital for all children's services at Guy’s and St Thomas', in Lambeth, on the site of a former nurses' home. An architectural design competition was managed by RIBA Competitions and won by Hopkins Architects and engineers Buro Happold. Davis Langdon provided quantity surveying and employer's agent services. Construction began in 2002, and the building was completed in 2004, ready for fitting out. This is one of the few hospitals in the world to be built not around the doctor's perspective, but around the patient's. The building won the IStructE Award for Education or Healthcare Structures in 2006.[2]

In 2018, it was announced that the Duchess of Cambridge would become the hospital's patron.[3]

Although a part of the NHS, the £60 million building cost of the new Evelina London Children's Hospital was largely paid for with private funds, with £50 million coming from the independent Guy's and St Thomas' Charity[4] (the successor to the endowments of Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, amongst others), and £10 million from NHS budgets and a major fundraising campaign by the Evelina London Children's Hospital Appeal.[5]

South Thames Retrieval Service (STRS) is a children's acute transport service which specialises in the inter-hospital transfer of critically ill children in London (south of the River Thames). It operates from the children's intensive care unit of the Evelina London Children's Hospital. The unit is the lead centre for children's intensive care in the South Thames region and manages the clinical network for children's (paediatric) intensive care via the retrieval service, in conjunction with the intensive care units at St George's Hospital and King's College Hospital. With one phone call to the emergency number, a clinician in a South Thames hospital, can source clinical advice, a PICU bed and a transport team as necessary. STRS can then also coordinate specialist service input (e.g. cardiology).[6]

• Healthcare in London
• List of hospitals in England

• Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
• Guy's & St Thomas' Charity
• The Evelina Children's Hospital Appeal
• Building design article relating to cooling problems