Wanstead Hospital

The Merchant Seamen's Orphan Asylum was originally established on 25 October 1827 at St George in the East (q.v.) in Wapping, later moving to Bow in 1834 and eventually to the current site in Wanstead in 1862, where the rural surroundings provided a healthy environment for the orphans. The objectives of the charity were to board, educate and maintain the 'children of British Merchant Seamen deceased from all parts of the world'. The foundation stone of the new asylum was laid in 1861 by Prince Albert, the Prince Consort, and the Venetian-Gothic style buildings were designed by George Somers Clarke, with red brick, bands of black brick and white stone dressings, and a tall tower and spire. Over the doorway is a relief carving of a ship at sea, which along with other carvings with a maritime theme found in the asylum was the work of Thomas Earp (1828-93). The asylum was built in stages, the south range for boys and the west range for girls completed in 1862, with classrooms on the ground floor and dormitories above. The chapel, designed to match the asylum, was built in 1863, paid for by Lady Morrison of Snaresbrook, and was inaugurated by the Prince and Princess of Wales. The buildings were extended over the years, with the Dining Hall added in 1866 and by 1883 it had been enlarged twice and the number of inmates was 270. In 1901 an Infirmary was built, designed by Arnold Mitchell, who was Surveyor to the Asylum from 1898-1913. The orphanage had long had royal patronage and in 1902 Edward VII allowed the word Royal to be added to the name, which became the Royal Merchant Seamen's Orphanage.

The orphanage moved to Bearwood House in Berkshire in 1921; by 1935 the name was changed to the Royal Merchant Navy School and in the 1960s became Bearwood College. In 1921 the old Asylum in Wanstead was purchased by the Convent of the Good Shepherd and it was then acquired in 1937 by Essex County Council and converted as a hospital with 202 beds. Wanstead Hospital became part of the National Health Service in 1948. The old Infirmary was converted as a Nurses Home. Wanstead Hospital was damaged during WWII and later repaired, but a plan to develop a larger hospital on the c.2.84 hectare site never materialised. It had 195 beds in 1961 but in 1975 the maternity service here ceased and Wanstead Hospital finally closed in 1986 when its services were transferred to Whipps Cross Hospital. It is now almost entirely re-developed for private housing, with some premises at the back of the site used for Outpatient Physiotherapy Services provided by Whipps Cross NHS Trust.

By c.2000 the gothic hospital buildings had been converted into private flats, the scheme named Clock Court after the Hospital's prominent clock tower. The chapel was eventually purchased by Buckhurst Hill Reform Synagogue in 1995 and refurbished by Ronald Wylde Associates as the Sukkat Shalom Reform Synagogue, with fittings and stained glass from the Jewish Hospital in Tottenham.