Benevolent Institutions - Law Commission - Ministry of Justice

16. Accordingly the 1871 Act provided that the Home should not form a hospital
within the meaning of the Act of 1845 and so should not require registration as such.
Rather it should be treated as being part of the Hospital. Patients whilst at the Home
should continue to be subject to all enactments and regulations relating to patients at
the Hospital. 47 The Commissioners of Lunacy were given the same powers of visiting
and superintending the Home as if it had been a hospital registered under the Act of
1845. 48 The remaining provisions of the 1871 Act related to the Hospital Governor’s
powers to maintain and alter the Home at Witley and to hold other land in the same
parish 49 , the approval of the Charity Commissioners in relation to those powers 50 , the
making and exhibition of regulations concerning the Home 51 , and ancillary
provisions. 52
The move to Beckenham
17. All three Acts became unnecessary in 1930 when the Hospital moved from
Southwark to its present site in Beckenham. 53 The buildings at the old site had
become antiquated and not best suited for the needs of the Hospital. The Hospital
Governors and the City of London disposed of their respective leasehold and
freehold interests in the Southwark site. Because the new site at Beckenham already
had convalescence facilities, the Hospital Governors also disposed of the Home.
The Southwark site became vested in the London County Council as an open space
under the Open Spaces Act 1906. Part of the site is today occupied by the Imperial
War Museum. 54
18. The Hospital’s move from Southwark in 1930 and the sale of the Home that
year means that the 1810, 1839 and 1871 Acts are now unnecessary. Their repeal is
proposed on that basis.
47 The 1871 Act, s 7.
48 The 1871 Act, s 8.
49 The 1871 Act, ss 3, 4, 9.
50 The 1871 Act, s 10.
51 The 1871 Act, ss 5, 6.
52 The 1871 Act, s 1 (short title), s 2 (interpretation), s 11 (expenses of Act).
53 The Beckenham site was known as the Monks Orchard Estate. The Bethlem Hospital Act 1928 (18 &
19 Geo.5 c.xli) empowered the Hospital Governors to sell or let part of the Estate not required for the
purposes of the Hospital.
54 Arrangements for the use of the Southwark site as an open space and for accommodating the
Imperial War Museum were provided for by the Bethlem Hospital Act 1926 (16 & 17 Geo.5 c.xlviii) as
amended by the Bethlem Hospital Act 1931 (21 & 22 Geo.5 c.lxiii).
39