Our main site, the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, has recently
undergone a £132m redevelopment.
The Royal Berkshire Hospital (RBH) was opened in Reading in 1839, on four acres of land donated by Lord Sidmouth.
The hospital's patron was Queen Victoria. Reading architect Henry Briant was commissioned to design the 50 bed building. Donations totalling £13,000 were raised to complete the building and equip it.
Subscribers recommended patients, who were cared for by honorary surgeons and physicians. Battle Hospital began as Reading Union Workhouse, built in 1867 at a cost of £14,000. Between 1889 and 1892 an infirmary was added with 185 beds for vagrants. In the First World War it became Reading War Hospital. The single storey Abbey block, opened in 1972, became the main building on the site.
The Royal Berkshire and Battle Hospitals NHS Trust was formed in 1993. A large programme of rebuilding resulted in the consolidation of all clinical services on the RBH site in 2005.
The RBBH Trust became the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust on 1 June 2006.
