The name, St. Luke’s, is the third by which this hospital has been known during the 89 years of its existence. It was opened in 1896 as a separate hospital to replace existing hospital (infirmary) accommodation within the adjacent Guildford Union Workhouse (founded 28 years previously) and was at that time called the GUILDFORD UNION INFIRMARY.
When in 1930, it was transferred from the Management of the Guildford Guardians to that of the Surrey County Council, its name changed firstly to WARREN ROAD HOSPITAL, and later, in 1945, to ST. LUKE’S HOSPITAL. This latter designation was intended to disassociate the Hospital from its Poor Law past. It derived from the nearby St. Luke’s Chapel in Addison Road and also commemorated the Patron Saint of Physicians. Established initially with the sole object of caring for sick paupers, the Hospital evolved in the course of the years to a Local Authority General Hospital with somewhat limited facilities, and then under the NHS to an Acute General Hospital of nearly 400 beds, with a number of different clinical and supporting departments and a wide range of modern equipment.
St. Luke’s Hospital thus came to provide a wide variety of specialist services for the population of SW Surrey and also by the establishment of the Regional Radiotherapy and Oncology Centre to serve a much greater population within the SW Thames Region of the NHS.
When plans were made to combine all Guildford’s hospitals at the new large Royal Surrey Hospital, St. Lukes gradually began to be scaled down as departments moved to the Royal Surrey, and the site was earmarked for housing. Building began in the mid 1990’s and is still in progress. About 235 new homes will eventually be built on the site. One of the first buildings was a new centre for the local doctors’ surgery which is now known as St Lukes Surgery.
