Atkinson Morley Hospital

Atkinson Morley Hospital (AMH) was located at Copse Hill, Wimbledon, London, SW20, England from 1869 until 2003. The hospital was noted as one of the most advanced brain surgery centres in the world, and in particular for the first use of computed tomography (CT) on a human being in 1972 by Godfrey Hounsfield for which he was awarded the 1979 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

The hospital was opened in 1869 following a donation of £100,000 by Mr Atkinson Morley, a wealthy hotelier and landowner, to St George's Hospital "for receiving, maintaining, and generally assisting convalescent poor patients". Mr Atkinson Morley had been a medical student at St George's Hospital, Hyde Park Corner about 1800. 28 acres (110,000 m²) of land from the Duke of Wellington's old estate in Wimbledon was bought and a building was constructed in the Second Empire style.

The hospital remained a convalescent home until 1939. During World War II, when the Bolingbroke and St. George’s acted as emergency hospitals for war casualties, the Neurosurgery Unit was established at the AMH by the neurosurgeon Sir Wylie McKissock. As the Regional Neurosciences Unit for South West London, the hospital even had its own helicopter landing facility. Next door was the Wolfson Neurorehabilitation Centre.

The hospital remained open until 2003 when neurology services were relocated to a purpose-built wing of the main St George's Hospital site, which had by then moved to Tooting. The Wolfson Neurorehabilitation Centre was closed in 2012 after providing a rehabilitation service to patients of the new Atkinson Morley's Wing at St.George's Hospital and throughout South West London.

The building and nearby grounds is undergoing restoration and conversion into a range choice of luxury apartments by the Berkeley Group called 'Wimbledon Hill Park'.

References

• Milward, Richard, Historic Wimbledon: Caesar's Camp to Centre Court, Fielder's: Wimbledon, 1989.

External links

• Image Bank - PHOTOS OF ATKINSON MORLEY'S CONVALESCENT HOME AND HOSPITAL