Middlesex Hospital Outpatients Wing/ Strand Union Workhouse

Although the 'Trust Hospital' may be considered a novelty, like it or not, it is built upon much older foundations. Pre- sent day hospital 'trusts' draw heavily upon the public service ideals of the post-war National Health Service, a tradition which itself evolved and was buttressed by the statutory and charitable care of the sick poor which predated 1948.

Our point of entry is the Middlesex Hospital Outpatients' Wing, in Cleveland Street, London. The building, on the eastern flank of the main hospital, is rather a dull-looking place. Many people pass it by, indeed even work there, without giving its past a thought. Yet this building has a remarkable history. In the mid-nineteenth century, far from being an appendage to its more illustrious neighbour it was an institution in its own right: the Strand Union Workhouse.