9 thoughts on “Metropolitan Convalescent Home”

  1. Does anyone know if the home was where Osbern Close is now please? Or any other information on the current Chichester Court site?

    • I think almost certainly. The men were housed here and ladies in Upper Sea Road. Quite a few old postcards on eBay. It closed in 1980 which ties in with the building of the new properties in the early 80’s

    • It was a Convalescent home when we were children and it was surrounded by fields and blackberry bushes (mid 1940’s )

  2. After getting sick and being treated at the Hackney Hospital I was there for six weeks around 1952 when I was about six. I remember the nurses could have been a little kinder to the kids. We used to go for walks where there were very tall pine trees. The local kids would climb up them and fire their catapults at us kids. My parents would go there by train from Walthamstow every Sunday to see me for an hour. I’d like to see my records, but the National Archives website is a forbidding place. It’s all a bit of a dream now 67 years later, another world.

  3. I was given a postcard yesterday with the same photo on as at the top of your page. I have just searched on line and found your page straightaway. I now live in Bexhill and play golf at Cooden Beach but don’t recall ever seeing this building and wonder if it has been demolished and, if so, where it once stood, please?

    • The Metropolitan Convelescent Home for Men was situated where Osbern Close now is, specifically 1-15 Chichester Court. The long driveway meant it could not be easily seen from Cooden Sea Road. It closed in 1980, and I believe the building was finally demolished in 1988 to be replaced by the Osbern Close houses.

  4. My grandfather was sent here in 1930/31 – according to two postcards I found – what were the men usually sent here for, tb or something more serious to convalesce. He lived in east London so it was quite a journey then.

  5. I was there as a child in the early 50’s. I never knew the name or address and have spent many years trying to find it. I am disappointed that when I have found a photo, and an address, to find the place no longer exists.

  6. I spent several weeks at this convalescent home during 1948. I too remember the staff, on reflection, being cruel. I was eight years old and had had bronchial pneumonia necessitating a stay in hospital of about six weeks. My everlasting memory of the home is vomiting lunch time stew back into the bowl and having to sit at the table until everyone else had finished. My parents visited and on one occasion was confronted by myself asking what “a fucking bastard” was. My father, a police officer, was horrified. It was much later in life that I actually found out!

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