Haslar Heritage Group

Welcome to Haslar Heritage Group

"Grand in conception, magnificent in structure & enduring in service, this hospital was never closed to friend or foe."

The first patients were admitted to the Royal Naval Hospital Haslar (also known as Royal Hospital Haslar in the 18th and 21st centuries) in 1753, the final patients in 2009.  Once the largest brick-built building in Europe, Haslar was one of the most advanced hospitals in the world, remaining at the forefront of medical science during most of those 256 years of continuous patient care. Such was its innovative design, its imposing Georgian buildings remained both functional and are largely unchanged.

Service casualties from almost every single war and action from the Seven Years War to the recent conflict in Afghanistan were cared for on its wards, and in the last 60 years it also acted as the district general hospital for the Gosport peninsula as well as supporting the fleet.   Countless Royal Navy doctors, nurses and medical staff trained there before travelling all over the globe, not only tending the sick and wounded but often pioneering scientific discoveries and exploration – some becoming rightly famous as a result.

Haslar Heritage Group

The aim of the Haslar Heritage Group is to promote the history and heritage of the hospital, together with that of the Royal Navy medical and nursing services and the many illustrious people that have worked there.  We are affiliated to the National Museum of the Royal Navy and are working with the new owners of the hospital site to incorporate as much heritage as possible into the new development, including establishing a museum of naval medicine in one of the original buildings.

Haslar Heritage Shop

Haslar was Britain’s best loved hospital. That’s not an idle boast. Even Queen Victoria said: “It would be difficult to think of a hospital more loved than the Royal Hospital Haslar”.

D-Day 80th Anniversary 2024

From the outset of planning for D Day, RNH Haslar’s role was to be limited to receive just the seriously wounded immediate casualties not fit for immediate transfer further inland. Its role as a Port Hospital was vital in providing this immediate care for more than 1300 seriously injured casualties between June and August 1944.

Read more about the staff and patients during D Day and the Normandy Campaign …

Haslar on BBC Radio 4

The Haslar Heritage Group  and Shore Leave at Haslar featured in a recorded programme in the BBC Radio 4 series ‘Open Country’

Broadcasted on Thursday 19th December 2013 at 3pm and available to listen again here

To those who...​

This website is dedicated to all Sick Berth Staff, Queen Alexandra’s Royal Naval Nursing Service, RN Medical Branch Staff, Wren SBA’s and the Ladies of the Voluntary Aid Detachment who served at Haslar this includes service men and women of all branches who acted in support of the hospital and staff.

The Future of Haslar

Today, the hospital’s 62-acre site is being developed as a luxury waterfront residential village together with light commercial and business units in the original outbuildings. All the site’s Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian period buildings are being retained, renovated, and re-used, while the 1980-era buildings, once needed for modern healthcare, have been demolished. The extensive parkland (once the patients’ ‘airing grounds’) will remain in place as will the Georgian burial grounds and Victorian cemetery.
To find out more, please visit Haslar Development Ltd’s website at https://www.royalhaslar.com

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