Doll's Hospital

In the 1800s, a "doll's hospital" opened in the nearby Fulham Road.[3][4] The hospital eventually came into possession of Herbert Wicks. In 1937, the address 16 Dawes Road was listed in the Kelly's Directory as a toy shop associated with toy dealer Albert E. Wickes,[5] son of Herbert Wicks.[6] The younger Wicks ran the hospital from 1930 to 1949.[6]

In April 1937, Dr. Archibald Henderson's first wife died and he inherited more than £20,000.[7] In July 1937, Henderson married Mrs. Rose Erren, who was recently divorced from Rudolf Erren, a German inventor and engineer.[7] Sometime after 1937 the building which housed the toy shop and the Doll's Hospital was bought by Dr. Archibald and Mrs. Rose Henderson.[8] In February 1948, the Hendersons vanished without trace.[5][9] They had become the penultimate victims of serial killer John Haigh, who was known as the Acid-Bath Murderer because he dissolved the bodies of his victims in concentrated sulphuric acid.[5] Haigh invited them to his basement workshop in Crawley, where he shot them with a revolver stolen from Henderson's own house.[5][10] With the aid of forged documents, Haigh emptied the couple's bank accounts, and sold their jewellery, car and property.[10] Using a forged deed of transfer, Haigh sold the Doll's Hospital to Albert Clarke.[5] Investigators visited the Doll's Hospital more than once while investigating the murders; for example a March 1949 story in the Portsmouth Evening News read "Detectives At Dolls' Hospital Again...detectives paid another visit to the doll's hospital at Fulham to build up the Yard's rapidly-growing dossier on five missing persons."[11] The person who sold Clarke the business under false pretences (Haigh) was originally described as "Mr. X."[12]

Despite the eventual revelation of the murder of the building owners by an infamous serial killer, the business known as the Doll's Hospital continued.[5] Notable local customers included Janet Street-Porter, who had her only doll repaired there, and others from around the world sent their dolls to be repaired there.[5] In its latter years, the Doll's Hospital was run by John Smith, Clarke's son-in-law, until it closed down sometime after 1989,[1] to be replaced with a non-descript bar.[5]