University College Hospital

University College Hospital is a teaching hospital in London, part of the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and associated with University College London.

History
It was founded in 1834, eight years after UCL (then known as the University of London), as the North London Hospital in order to provide clinical training for the "medical classes" of the University, after a refusal by the governors of the Middlesex Hospital to allow UCL students access to that hospital's wards. The first major operation under ether in Europe was conducted at University College Hospital by Robert Liston in 1846. It was split from UCL in 1905, and a new building (designed by Alfred Waterhouse), known as the Cruciform building, was opened in 1906, which survives to the present day.

Mergers
It took over the National Dental Hospital in 1914, and the Royal Ear Hospital in 1920. In 1994 it became part of the University College London Hospitals (UCLH) NHS Trust, together with the Middlesex Hospital, the Hospital for Tropical Diseases and the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital for Women. The Eastman Dental Hospital and the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery became part of the UCLH NHS Trust in 1998 and the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital in 2002.

New facilities
A major new hospital building, constructed under by an Amec / Balfour Beatty joint venture under a Private Finance Initiative contact and pictured to the right, opened in 2005.