Charing Cross Hospital

Charing Cross Hospital was opened by the Queen in 1973, 20 years after the decision to build it had been made. It was designed as a general teaching hospital with about 750 beds. The main part of the complex is a cruciform plan with a central core, intended to maximise the amount of exterior windows to the wards, laboratories and teaching facilities. As well as the hospital, the site was provided with an amenities centre, accommodation blocks, a medical school and library. Lower sections of the building, like the entrance, were designed to humanise the mechanically organised arrangement and were treated with brick and surrounded by good quality hard and soft landscape to create a sense of wellbeing. Each ward occupied a whole wing of the tower and gave the patients commanding views of London. Ralph Tubb’s stuck to his original vision over the extended development of the scheme and the clarity of the overall complex was down to its simplicity. The project architects were F.F. Tischler, E.R. Coreby and J.V. Robinson.