Highlands Hospital

Highlands Hospital
Enfield District Health Authority
The Northern Convalescent Fever Hospital building, now residential apartments
Geography
Location	Winchmore Hill,, Greater London, England, United Kingdom
Organisation
Care system	Public NHS
Hospital type	District General
Affiliated university	None
Services
Emergency department	None
Beds	550 (in 1973)
History
Founded	c. 1883
Closed	1993
Links
Lists	Hospitals in England

Highlands Hospital was a hospital in Winchmore Hill, in the London Borough of Enfield. The hospital closed in 1993, and the site was developed for residential accommodation, although many of the original buildings remain. The site is designated a conservation area and the former ambulance station is a grade II listed building.

The site was part of the Chaseville Park estate (originally part of Enfield Chase) and was acquired by the Metropolitan Asylums Board in 1883-4. In May 1885 the foundation stone was laid of what was originally to be named The Northern Convalescent Fever Hospital, and the hospital opened on 25 September 1887, having been designed by architects Pennington and Bridgen.

Rather than having a single large building, the hospital comprised several smaller buildings, known as villas. In 1890, temporary huts were erected to increase capacity. The following year, further temporary iron huts were erected on a neighbouring site to the north of the existing hospital. During 1892 and 1893, 200 cases of scarlet fever were treated in the Enfield Isolation Hospital by a Dr. J. J. Ridge, with a mortality rate of 2.5 per cent, compared to a 6.3 per cent mortality rate in other hospitals under the control of the Metropolitan Asylums Board in 1893.

In 1900, Enfield Urban District Council replaced these with a new isolation hospital, named Enfield Isolation Hospital, designed by the district council surveyor, a Mr Collins, and built by Chesoum and Sons. The Enfield and Edmonton Joint Hospital Board took control of Enfield Isolation Hospital in 1905. The main purpose of the hospital was to deal with infectious diseases with the notable exception of smallpox.

Control of the Northern Convalescent Fever Hospital was transferred to London County Council in 1930, and the site served as an emergency bed service hospital during World War II. In 1938, four additional single storey ward blocks were added to the Enfield Isolation Hospital.