The hospital had both medical and surgical wards and the medical wards held forty beds and included dementia patients.
The grounds had two nurses homes: one for the incoming trainees and one for nurses who had completed the three month preliminary training and a nurses training school. There were operating suites a laboratory with area for postmortems, emergency dept and out patients. There was an administration building which also held doctors quarters. Everything was spread out over quite a large area. The hospital’s school of Midwifery was also in the grounds.
The hospital was badly bombed in 1940 which resulted in an open bomb site within the hospital grounds. Four people were killed and a block destroyed. In 1944 a V-1 flying bomb scored a direct hit. The south end of the 1847 main block, Stone Hall, and 1871 infirmary were destroyed. Five nurses, six children and seven adult patients died. The other 33 casualties were transferred to St George’s Hospital in Hyde Park Corner and the remainder of the patients evacuated. The hospital gradually reopened, and was still carrying out repairs during its transfer into the National Health Service in 1948.
Jimi Hendrix died at St Mary Abbot’s on 18 September 1970.
