Group    From 1895  To 1903

Oriolet Hospital and Convalescent Home

Categories: Medicine

Founded and endowed by Arnold Frank Hills (1857–1927), MD of Thames Ironworks, sportsman (founder of West Ham FC), philanthropist, and promoter of vegetarianism.

A centre of treatment for sick vegetarians it consisted of a Victorian house named Oriolet and an Arts & Crafts open-air ward block with 20 beds. The committed fruitarian Josiah Oldfield was made its Warden.

c.1898 Oldfield left and in May 1903 the Salvation Army took over the hospital. It was run by Florence Booth, renamed the Oriolet Hygienic Home and re-opened in June 1903 for the treatment of TB patients. When the doctor in charge became unwell and no replacement could be found the hospital was closed. 

1908 the premises were taken over by St Ethelburga's Home for Girls, which moved from Kilburn. 1922 that closed and the building became the York House Hotel. Part of the site became a tea garden until 1929. A small section continued as the garden of the Wheatsheaf public house, now, 2022, the Quindici Italian restaurant.

The Hotel was demolished in 1930 and new homes have been built on the site, as well as a new road - York Crescent. The only remnant of the Oriolet Hospital is a dragon finial on the roof of No. 97 Staples Road.

Source: (the magnificent) Lost Hospitals of London.

This image comes from Childrens Homes which has other photos of the buildings when they were used by St Ethelburga's Home for Girls. We wonder if the building at the far right is the still standing 105 Staples Road.

What we have failed to discover is where the name Oriolet came from. Oriole is a type of colourful European or North American bird.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Oriolet Hospital and Convalescent Home

Commemorated ati

Oriolet Hospital and Dr Oldfield

The site of the Oriolet Fruitarian Hospital (1895 - 1903) and its director Dr...

Read More

Other Subjects

Sir Jonathan Hutchinson

Sir Jonathan Hutchinson

Surgeon and pathologist. He was born on 23 July 1828 in Selby, Yorkshire and our picture source gives a biography of his life. He died, aged 84 years, on 23 June 1913 in Haslemere, Surrey and was ...

Person, Medicine

1 memorial
T. E. Walsby

T. E. Walsby

District Staff Officer in the St John Ambulance Brigade, No. 1 District, 1915-1948. Officer in the Order of St John.

Person, Emergency Services, Medicine, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson

Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson

Scholar and Humanist. Born at Langham Chambers, near Oxford Circus. Although qualified as a doctor, he decided to follow an academic career. He lectured at Cambridge and in 1896 published 'The Gree...

Person, Medicine, Philosophy

1 memorial
J. MacLean Carvell, MBE, MRCS, LSA

J. MacLean Carvell, MBE, MRCS, LSA

Assistant Commissioner in the St John Ambulance Brigade, No. 1 District Metropolitan Corps, 1897-1923. Honorary Associate in the Order of St John.

Person, Emergency Services, Medicine, Politics & Administration

1 memorial