Forest Gate Hospital, Forest Lane, had been an industrial school from 1854 to 1906, and in 1908 became a branch workhouse of Poplar union. In 1911 it was bought by West Ham union which reopened it in 1913 as a workhouse infirmary. By 1930 it had 500 beds for maternity, mental, and chronic sick cases. An extension with 200 beds was added in 1931. The hospital suffered bomb damage in 1940. New maternity wards were built in 1950. The principal building still retains its mid-Victorian institutional appearance. It is a brick range, 15 bays long and three storeys high, with round-headed windows to the ground floor and the central bay raised to form a low tower.