Site: Royal Masonic Hospital Nurses' Home (1 memorial)
W6, Ravenscourt Gardens, Ashlar Court
In 1916 the Freemasons' War Hospital took over the former premises of the Chelsea Hospital for Women on the Fulham Road. At the end of the war it became the Freemasons' Hospital and Nursing Home. By 1933 more space was needed and a new hospital was built in Ravenscourt Gardens on a large site stretching between Ravenscourt Square and Ravenscourt Park. Shortly after it moved in here the hospital was renamed as the Royal Masonic Hospital.
The magnificent hospital building is listed Grade II*. The listing gives the architect as "Thomas Tait of Sir John Burnet, Tait and Lorne". The front of the hospital is on Ravenscourt Park and high on that elevation are a pair of allegorical sculptures: Healing and Charity, by Gilbert Bayes. 2020: the hospital was being marketed for sale and development. The Savills sales brochure has floor plans and excellent photos of the building.
The nurses home, conceived as part of the original plan, was built in 1938 on an adjoining site to the west of the hospital, also to designs by Burnet, Tait and Lorne, and is separately listed at Grade II. In 2013 its conversion into flats had begun and, 2022, they are being sold.
Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of plaquesoflondon.co.uk