Site last updated 30th July 2010
our masthead is from a water colour painting courtesy Rex Trayhorne A.M.R.S. 1988


The Chapel was built in 1858 for the use of patients and staff of the Royal South Hants Hospital and is currently owned by NHS Southampton City.

The chapel was designed by Hinves and Bedborough, a Southampton firm of architects. The chapel was Grade II listed on 8th October 1981 and advice and support has been sought from the Southampton City Council Conservation Officer and local amenity groups with consideration to bring the Chapel back into community use. It was closed in 1998 and in 2008 work was undertaken to make the roof water and pigeon proof.
Originally it was sited in Fanshawe Street and Exmoor Road but as the car parks and modern buildings were added to the site the streets disappeared, The Chapel has a ground floor crypt [normally underground as a cellar so this makes the building unusual] and originally with a ramp from the wards to the door on the first floor [the chapel area]. In building the car parks, the ramp was demolished leaving the Chapel isolated and somewhat forgotten. When the building returns to use, a new means of reaching the main door on the first floor will need to be considered. This has to be carefully planned because of the heritage of the building and the requirement to gain planning approval known as Listed Building Consent. A lift for access, toilets including one suitable for disabled visitors and a kitchen area as well as a reception area for coats and personal effects and laying out the room space to accommodate various uses have all to be carefully considered.

The hospital dates from 1844 starting with the Victoria and Albert wards which were followed by the wards named after the doctors Bullar and the third building on the site was the chapel. In this era several hospitals were built from the philantropic fund raising by the Freemasons and the queen granted the privilege of the title Royal for such hospitals.  About 15 months after it was built, the chapel received gas lighting and then a heating system.  A year or so after the end of WW1, the chapel underwent an updating on the interior when oak panels and pew seating were added. During the WWII the nurses accomodation nearby was bombed and the west end wall of the chapel had damage to its window.

There is a striking glass window which was installed in 1955 in memory of Fred Woolley. Fred Woolley known for his administrative work on the Titanic Relief Fund was also a trustee of the RSH hospital. He ran a successful accountancy business and farms in the West End village area. He was mayor of Southampton on two occasions and a well respected lay preacher of the Methodist Church.

This historic building remains an important focal point on approaching the main entrance of the hospital. The Friends of RSH Hospital Chapel are a completely independent group who will work to raise funds to bring the Chapel into community use and welcomes your support. Fund raising will be by subscriptions, donations, legacies and grants from charitable trusts etc. If you would like to support the venture by making a donation, please send a cheque payable to Friends of RSH Hospital Chapel to Will Temple [Treasurer] 1 Beech Court, Beech Avenue Southampton SO18 4TS.

The Southampton City Archives, Lower Basement, Civic Centre [open PM Tuesdays, AM/PM Wednesdays and Thursdays] holds an interesting selection of records donated by the SCPCT. The records include chaplain's logs, books with newspaper cuttings about the hospital, probationer's record of experience, operations book etc.
Martyn Basford has offered to act as the archivist for any research undertaken by the Friends group. Former patients and retired nurses and medical staff are of particular importance in building up data about the chapel. One historic reference in the chaplain's log was the reaction in Southampton when the armistice came into force at the end of WWI ["loud firecrackers in celebration"]. Some retired nurses re-call treating wounded troops in the hospital during WWII . Dr Bullar one of the founders wrote an article on the use of mustard baths in treating cholera so the records are of importance to social and local historians.


Howard Percy Ward MRCS MB [London] was a Physician at the RSH. He died in 1933.



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