Next month’s closure of the 32-bed Wolfson Neurorehabilitation Centre will mark the end of 143 years of hospitals at Copse Hill, West Wimbledon. Not that long ago there were three of them - Atkinson Morley’s, Wimbledon Hospital, and the Wolfson itself.

The first hospital building work started in 1867 on what had previously been part of the 300-acre estate of the late Lord Cottenham, Lord Chancellor.

Two years later, Atkinson Morley's Convalescent Hospital took in its first patients for the recovery process following treatment at St George’s Hospital, Hyde Park Corner. It was named after Atkinson Morley, a governor of St George’s, who had bequeathed £150,000 specifically for construction of a peaceful convalescent home.

The building in rural Wimbledon was the first purpose-built facility of its kind associated with an inner city hospital.

The following year, 1870, saw the opening of Wimbledon Cottage Hospital just across the lane from Atkinson Morley’s. Among its founders was the Chancery barrister, Edward Thurston Holland whose name lives on today through Thurston Road. It was rebuilt in 1912 and reopened with 37 beds, simply named Wimbledon Hospital.

For more than a century the two hospitals operated on each side of the road. A sixth of all St George’s patients from Hyde Park Corner convalesced at Atkinson Morley’s, with patients and laundry transported to Wimbledon at first in horse-drawn carriages and after 1888 in an omnibus.

Wimbledon Hospital, on the other hand, was primarily for local patients, although both establishments were used by wounded servicemen during the First World War and Wimbledon Hospital in particular treated over 500 men, with marquees in the grounds complementing its capacity.

Both hospitals were upgraded during the Second World War with much greater bed numbers and both had their own homes for staff on site. In 1942 Atkinson Morley’s original convalescent role was permanently changed when its surgical wards were taken over for neurosurgery, and after the war this became its primary role.

It specialised in head injuries, attaining an international reputation for excellence. Wimbledon Hospital, meanwhile, joined the NHS in 1948 with 84 beds under the control of the South West Metropolitan Regional Health Board.

In 1949 departments of psychiatry and neuroradiology were established at Atkinson Morley’s Hospital and by 1954 it had 44 neurosurgical beds, 16 neurological and 50 psychiatric, with 14 beds available for continuity and recovery.

Then, in 1967, exactly 100 years after the first building work on site, the Wolfson Neurorehabilitation Centre opened next door as Britain’s first facility dedicated to neurological recovery. It provided rehabilitation for patients needing intensive therapy for physical or psychological disabilities following brain or spinal cord injuries.

But only 14 years later Copse Hill’s association with hospitals suffered its first hit. In 1981 it was decided to close Wimbledon Hospital and move its services elsewhere. This finally happened in 1983 when services moved to the Nelson at Merton Park and the hospital was demolished the following year to be replaced by a housing estate. Nearly 20 years later in 2003, Atkinson Morley’s also closed and its services were transferred to St George’s Hospital, now transferred from Hyde Park Corner to Tooting.

Closure of the Wolfson in March 2012 will set the final seal as its beds are also moved, first to St George’s and later to Queen Mary’s at Roehampton. Some 147 patients had been treated in the last year when the closure announcement was made public. More new housing is expected to replace it.

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