The Metropolitan Poor Law Act was passed in March 1867 to improve the provision of care for the sick poor in London, particularly through the provision of hospital accommodation separate from workhouse. The operation of the Act was overseen by the Metropolitan Asylums Board under which six Sick Asylum Districts were formed, one of which was Central London formed in 1868.
The costs of building six completely new hospitals turned out to be prohibitive, and four of the new Sick Asylum Districts were reconstituted as enlarged poor law unions who would redeploy their existing accommodation. The Central London District survived, along with the Poplar and Stepney Sick Asylum District.
In its early years, the Central London District made use of the St Pancras Union Infirmary at Highgate, and, from 1874, the former Strand Union infirmary site, at the east side of Cleveland Street.
A new Central London District Sick Asylum was erected in 1898-1900 "in the country" at Colindale, Hendon. The site cost £12,500 and the foundation stone was laid on 6th June, 1898. Its layout was based on the pavilion system with separate blocks connected by a central linking corridor. A central administrative block contained offices, nurses' rooms, the boardroom and chapel, with kitchens and laundry to the rear. At each side were placed two two-storey ward blocks: one for TB patients, one for children, one for infectious children, and one for casualty cases. In 1913, the hospital was sold to the newly formed City of Westminster Union and renamed Hendon Infirmary. In December, 1919, it was taken over by the Metropolitan Asylums Board and reopened on 1st January 1920 as a sanatorium for male TB cases.
In 1930, control passed to the London County Council then, in 1948, it joined the new National Health Service. Under the name of Colindale Hospital, it continued to specialise in the treatment of TB until the 1950s. Closure of the hospital began in 1996. Demolition work begain summer 2009, I think the admin block is to be saved...
