Built c.1933

Bold red lettering announcing HACKNEY HOSPITAL to the inhabitants of Hackney used to adorn the former entrance block to the hospital on Homerton High Street. Below the lettering – which can still be detected today albeit being over painted in white – ambulances would pass through an opening to the older complex of buildings situated beyond the security barrier and the gate porters’ lodge.

This three-storey building, facing onto Homerton High Street, provided the new face for the Hackney Institution in 1933. Built in brick with metal Crittall windows this building created a clean and airy feel, which would have been in stark contrast to the 19th-century pavilion blocks to the left and right.

On the ground floor the building housed the telephone switchboard, male and female casualty departments, an examination room, offices and the gate porters’ lodge. On the first floor, above the ambulance entrance, was an operating theatre for emergency cases, as well rooms for applying dressings and dental work. A kitchen, canteen, cloakroom, rest room and changing rooms for domestic staff and auxiliary nurses were located on the lower ground floor.

The operating theatre, with a large north-facing window allowing maximum light penetration, was faced in white tiles and terrazzo flooring. In comparison to modern-day operating theatres this room looks frighteningly low-tech with doctors and nurses relying on only the most basic of equipment.

In 2010, unlike the other blocks built in this period, the building survives albeit without its attractive metal window frames and entranceway, which has been blocked in.