During the First World War, the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital became a military hospital, with discharged disabled soldiers being housed there in 1918. King George V and Queen Mary visited the hospital on two occasions.
The daybook records that this photograph was part of a series taken for the Howard de Walden Estate, which owns or leases ninety-two acres (the majority) of the Marylebone area of London. It is almost certain that this photograph - and the rest of the series it belongs to - was commissioned during preparations for the forming of the first de Walden family Estate company in 1918, after considerable refurbishment and rebuilding works were carried out in the late Victorian and early Edwardian eras. The estate is named after the 6th Baron Howard de Walden, whose widow Lucy Joan Bentinck was passed possession of the estate as sister of the Duke of Portland, who died without male successor. The Portland family had previously held the estate for five generations until 1879.
This is part of the Series: HBL01/01 Series Of Photographic Negatives And Prints; within the Collection: HBL01 The Bedford Lemere Collection
Source: Historic England Archive
Photographer: Boucher, Adolphe Augustus: Bedford Lemere And Company
Orthopaedic Hospital, Health And Welfare, First World War