City Hospital

In 1867 the Public Health (Scotland) Act gave power to Local Authorities to make provision for the treatment of infectious disease cases during periods of epidemics. In 1871 the Town Council of Edinburgh prepared the Canongate Poorhouse for that purpose. Further, as the Managers of the Royal Infirmary refused to admit cases of smallpox or cholera, premises in King’s Stables Road and in part of the Poorhouse in Forrest Road were fitted up as temporary hospitals to meet any emergency that might arise.

After the Royal Infirmary moved to Lauriston Place in 1879 its Managers used Old Surgeons’ Hall for the treatment of infectious fevers during ordinary seasons. In 1881, on the advice of Sir Henry Littlejohn, the Medical Officer of Health, the Town Council purchased from the Infirmary its old Adam medical building in Infirmary Street and the two Surgical Hospitals in High School Yards. The old Medical Hospital was demolished in 1884 and, in 1885, the Council purchased from the Infirmary the Old Surgeons’ Hall. In this way the treatment of infectious diseases came to be concentrated in High School Yards. This complex of buildings was known as the City Fever Hospital.

In 1903 the City Fever Hospital moved to its present site at Colinton Mains, where it became the City Hospital for Infectious Diseases.

By the 1960s the hospital, by now called simply the City Hospital, was no longer restricted to the treatment of infectious diseases. It also treated Tropical Diseases; it had surgical departments for chest and thoracic surgery. In 1965 it took on the treatment of in-patients from the Royal Infirmary’s ENT Department, which now confined itself to seeing out-patients.

In 1948 the City Hospital became one of the hospitals in Edinburgh Royal Victoria Hospital Group of the South Eastern Regional Hospital Board. In 1974 it became part of the South Lothian District of Lothian Health Board.