National Temperance Hospital

The hospital opened as the London Temperance Hospital on 6 October 1873[1] by initiative of the National Temperance League,[2] and was managed by a board of 12 teetotallers.[3] Under its rules, the use of alcohol to treat patients was discouraged, but not outlawed: doctors could prescribe alcohol when they thought necessary for exceptional cases.[4]

In 1931, Chicago magnate Samuel Insull donated $160,000 to build a new extension, the "Insull Memorial wing"[5] which was designed in the Art Deco style by architect William Binnie.[6]

It was renamed the National Temperance Hospital in 1932[3] and acquired the premises of the St Pancras Female Orphanage and Charity School, located on an adjacent site, in 1945.[7] It was incorporated into the National Health Service in 1948 under the management of the North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board.[3]

After the hospital was closed in 1990,[3] its exterior featured in an episode of Mr. Bean, broadcast in October 1995, in which Bean tailgates an ambulance and stops behind it before entering the hospital.[8] It was briefly considered, but rejected, as a potential site for the National Institute for Medical Research between 2006 and 2007.[9]

The building was used by Camden Collective, a regeneration initiative, from 2015 to 2017.[10] In 2017 demolition began as part of the work necessary to clear the area for the proposed High Speed 2 railway line.[11] Time capsules were discovered during the demolition in October 2017.[12]

• In the 1937 edition of Burke's Landed Gentry, requesting for donations to the hospital
• Google Street View of the oldest part of the building, in Cardington Street
• HS2: Proposal to get National Temperance Hospital into use