St Marylebone Hospital for Psychiatry

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St Marylebone Hospital for Psychiatry
Construction Began 1951
Closed 1962
Current Status Demolished
Alternate Names
  • St Marylebone and Western General Dispensary
  • West End Hospital for Nervous Diseases



By 1951 the psychiatric patients had become so numerous at the West End Hospital for Nervous Diseases that all such work was moved to the old St Marylebone and Western General Dispensary at 48 Cosway Street. This became the St Marylebone Hospital for Psychiatric and Child Guidance. Eventually treatment was offered for adults too, including individual therapy along analytical lines, hypnosis and group therapy.

The Hospital established an Art Therapy Department, the only hospital in the UK to provide art therapy for out-patients. Painting, drawing, modelling and carving were offered, with an art teacher working in conjunction with the psychiatrists.

The building lay in the path of a projected road and the Hospital had to close in 1962. Services were transferred to the Paddington Clinic and Day Hospital. Thus the psychiatric department of the West End Hospital lost its own identity and became part of a larger unit.