Miller General Hospital

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The Miller General Hospital was a hospital in Greenwich, London from 1884 until 1974. The precursor to the Hospital was the Kent Dispensary (Greenwich High Road), which opened in a house in the Broadway, Deptford, in 1783. It later (1837) earned royal patronage from Queen Victoria and became the Royal Kent Dispensary. In 1851, this was forced to move to a new building (completed in 1855) nearby in Greenwich High Road. To mark the Dispensary's centenary in 1883, it was decided to build a hospital named after the Revd Canon John Cale Miller (1814-1880), vicar of St Alfege Church, Greenwich and a supporter of the Dispensary. The Miller Memorial Hospital opened in December 1884, with 25 beds. In 1908, the Hospital was renamed the Miller General Hospital for South East London. Neighbouring land and properties were purchased, and work on a new extension began in 1911. The Greenwich hospital was further expanded in 1928 with construction of the Robinson Wing, named after John Henry Robinson, then chairman of the hospital, and increasing the hospital's capacity to 151 beds. A new operating theatre was also installed in the Bucknell Wing, and a nurses' home built in Catherine Grove. In 1965 the hospital was absorbed by Greenwich District Hospital (formerly St Alfege's), becoming the Miller General Wing. However, in need of expensive modernisation, it was closed in 1974. Services were transferred to the District Hospital, and most of the Miller buildings were demolished in 1975. The original Dispensary, the general wing building (3 Devonshire Dr) and nurses' home (15 Catherine Grove) survive, having been redeveloped by Bellway Homes as residential accommodation.¹

Royal Kent Dispensary