Gateshead Hospitals

per Manders ...Gateshead lacked hospital accommodation.

Sheriff Hill Isolation Hospital was extended in 1904, while Saltwell Hall was also used as a hospital for infectious diseases for a time. Whinney House was another stately home converted to this purpose.
Here's the Sheriff Hill Hospital on this O.S. map of 1895

Finance was not available for new building until 1936 and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital was begun at Sheriff Hill in 1938. Unfortunately, the Second World War delayed the completion of this building and the hospital wards of the workhouse were taken over. This later became Bensham General Hospital.

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The Queen Elizabeth Hospital was officially opened on 18 March 1948. See this later street map showing the isolation hospital in the bottom corner of the QE Hospital area. Both maps cover more or less the same ground so other changes maybe noted..the existence of Southend Road and Beacon Lough Road for example

Mentally ill patients were catered for at private asylums situated at Wrekenton (1825-55), Sheriff Hill (1817-60) and Bensham (1799-1868). Then, Gateshead Council sent patients to an asylum owned by Durham County Council from 1856 but this agreement was ended in 1912. An estate was bought at Stannington for £9,221 and the hospital was opened in 1914 to serve the town's needs for a mental hospital...the "loonies" being shipped miles away to Northumberland..!! Thankfully, St. Mary's is now a thing of the past.


Queen Elizabeth Hospital

Childrens Hospital

Bensham Hospital

Stannington Hospital

Gateshead Hospitals Pics & Info brought to you by


          The Felling Heritage Group



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