West Ham ambulance station wasn't always so, although the land has been in the hands of the medical professions since 1889 when Ms Katherine Twining bought the site and opened it up as as St Mary's District Nurses' Home.
There was a period of expansion from 1898 to 1904 where the site became an maternity training hospital, there were 12 in-patient beds, which is where the picture comes from.
There was then a number of changes, with the nurses home moving, and the building being damaged by bombs during World War II. During the Second World War, the In-patient Department was evacuated to Suntrap, High Beech, Loughton, Essex. During the same period the Ministry of Health Emergency Maternity Hospital at East Haddon Hall, Northampton was staffed by Plaistow Maternity Hospital.
Then, in 1976 the site was closed and the ambulance service moved in. Now we have the area's fitters, and a small but nice ambulance station. Later on in the year management will be moving into a portacabin on the site while the offices in Newham station are refurbished.
In an amusing turn of fate, one of the staff who works at the station was born there while it was a maternity hospital – we keep joking that one night-shift we'll find him dead in a messroom chair.
During the WWII my parents lived in Upton Park, West Ham in East London. I was shocked to find out just yesterday that my sister, who was born during the war was actually born in The Hall, East Haddon, Northamptonshire. Why on earth was she born there? So I was fascinated to discover this webpage which suggests that St Mary's District Nurses' Home, West Ham, a maternity training hospital, was damaged by bombs during World War II and that the Ministry of Health Emergency Maternity Hospital at East Haddon Hall, Northampton was staffed by Plaistow Maternity Hospital. I would be most interested to hear from anyone who knows any snippets of history about the link between maternity hospitals in Plaistow and East Haddon to further explain how my sister came to be born in East Haddon.
Having nothing better to do – I entered “Suntrap” into my search engine and came up with – you!I was born at Suntrap in April 1943. What a facinating blog.
My parents were resident in Plaistow in 1943 and my father worked for West Ham Council.
If anybody knows whether “Suntrap” still exists – I would be very interested.
My email address is howardhuett@btconnect.com
I was born in East Haddon Hall in 1944. My mother was living in Wood Green, London at the time, not anywhere near Plaistow. So I am keen to know why she would have been evacuated there.
I have found a fascinating book “Pigs, Pubs & People” which has a lot of information about East Haddon Hall during the war.