History
Whilst records state that Sutton Hospital dates back to 1899 when it opened as a cottage hospital, the Sutton hospital on its present site next to the Royal Marsden Hospital in Belmont originates from 1930, opening as the Sutton and Cheam District Hospital in 1931. This then became the Sutton and Cheam General Hospital in 1939 with the hospital having 130 beds as well as 10 emergency service beds to tend to war casualties during WW2.
In 1948 it joined the NHS under the control of the St Helier Group Hospital Management Committee, part of the South West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board and a maternity annexe was opened with 21 beds in single and double rooms . The Hospital also took over some of the vacant buildings belonging to the neighbouring Downs Hospital for Children, which had closed the same year.
![IMG_20210912_112204[1].jpg](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' width='1875' height='2500' viewBox%3D'0 0 1875 2500'%2F%3E "IMG_20210912_112204[1].jpg")
In 1953 two new wards were built. The Hospital then had 146 beds, of which 8 were for private patients and 4 were amenity beds. However, there was a great need for a new Out-Patients Department as the Casualty and X-rays Departments, the dispensary and Almoner's office, were all served by one narrow corridor, also used by patients going to the Pathology Laboratory. (There were some 34,500 out-patient attendances each year). In 1957, a new Out-Patients Department was built- a pre-fabricated 'Cornish unit' - at a cost of £16,500. A chapel also opened on the site.
In April 1959, after extensive alterations, the former Downs Hospital for Children re-opened as the Cotswold Wing. The Wing had 136 beds and was used to accommodate geriatric patients from the St Helier Group, the first of whom arrived on 1st July 1959. By the end of the year only one block had fully opened; the second block of 68 beds could not do so because of the lack of nursing staff. The Hospital then had 282 beds, including the new Wing. In 1966 only 244 of the 282 beds were staffed.
In 1974, following a major reorganisation of the NHS, the Hospital came under the administration of the Sutton and West Merton District Health Authority, part of the South West Thames Regional Health Authority. In 1982, after another major reorganisation, it came under the control of the Merton and Sutton District Health Authority.
In 1983 a Day Surgery Unit was opened. Further improvements were made in 1990 and work began on building an Orthopaedic Surgery Unit, which opened in January 1991.
In 1999, following yet another major reorganisation, the Hospital joined the Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust.
In the early 2000's Sutton Hospital had 32 beds and a modern day surgery unit as well as Out-patient services including - ophthalomogy, lithotripsy, pain control and laser treatment for dermatological conditions, as well as radiology and physiotherapy. There was also a Day Hospital for elderly patients and a centre for mental health care provided for by the South West London and St Georges Mental health NHS Trust. It was then proposed to build a new critical care facility on the site to replace both Epsom and St Helier Hospitals, but in a shock decision in 2008 it was decided to improve facilities at St Helier Hospital instead.
As part of the improvement works at St Helier Hospital, 80% of St Heliers patients were transferred to Sutton Hospital whilst the Ferguson wing there was rebuilt. Upon the new buildings at St Helier being opened in 2017, Sutton Hospital then closed, although some of the wards had already laid disused for many years prior. Part of the site (1.6 hectares) was sold off by the Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust to Sutton Council for £8m in order to help pay for the redevelopment of St Helier Hospital. The land sold to Sutton council was then used to build a new secondary school (Harris Academy Sutton) which opened in September 2018. The remaining land (6 hectares) will be used to enable the expansion of the Royal Marsden Hospital and the Institute of Cancer Research and in March 2023 Sutton Council approved plans to demolish the existing buildings to make way for modern facilities forming part of the new world-leading campus for cancer research and treatment.
The Explore
Very easy simple, walk-in explore when i went in August 2021. The place had already managed to be quite trashed by then but there was some nice natural decay in one of the buildings. overall quite a nice interesting but uneventful explore. Now onto the main part...
The Photos
Thanks for Reading 
