Governor Grey allocated funds for Auckland Hospital in 1846.  It was built a year later on its present site.  The architect was Frederick Thatcher (1814-90), a Sussex man who was also assistant secretary to Grey.  He also designed St Mary’s Church in Parnell (1860).

The original hospital was of timber construction on a scoria foundation and had four wards of 10 beds and two wards of five beds.  It was built roughly on part of the new Auckland City Hospital.  The first medical officer was Dr John Johnson who was also an amateur artist.  He stated:

“On admission, patients were stripped of their dirty clothes, bathed in a wooden tub, if sufficient water was procurable, and put to bed.”

Apparently the hospital well was often dry and usually the walking sick had the task of bringing water by bucket to the hospital from other sources.

During 1848, 156 Maori patients from places such as Rotorua, Tauranga and Hokianga were nursed at the hospital.  Also 376 Maori received outpatient treatment in the same year.

A new medical officer in 1848 requested that a bathhouse be established to replace the wooden tub, and this was built 11 years later in 1859.  In 1856, Dr T F McGauren, the provincial surgeon reported that the most common diseases amongst Europeans were those of the heart, kidney and liver caused by excessive drinking (“ardent spirits”).  Amongst Maori the main diseases were TB and rheumatism.

Dr T M Philson replaced Dr McGauren.  He was an energetic man and a strong advocate for new hospital facilities.  A new hospital was eventually built on the site in 1877.  He was also a caring man who turned away no one in need. Even though they could not pay the 1s 6d per day.  The hospital became overcrowded with people sleeping in the loft and dining room floor.  Philson was deeply concerned that he had insufficient room for female patients.  In particular he saw the need to segregate women who were ‘of the most degraded sort’ from the young.

Lower down the site was the first mental hospital built in 1851.  It was small and insanitary and finally condemned.  The patients were eventually transferred to Oakley hospital (UNITEC site) in 1867.

Dr Philson’s name is remembered in the Medical School library that is named after him.  On his retirement Dr Philson passed on the 270 sovereigns, which had been given to him by the city council, to establish a medical library for the hospital.

A new hospital was built in 1877 at a cost of ₤25, 000.  It was designed by Philip Herepath, architect to the Provincial Government and he based much of the internal design on London hospitals.  Externally it had the appearance of an Italian stately home.  It was built to accommodate 88 patients.  The hospital was built of bluestone from the Mt Eden quarry.  Dressed stones were prepared at Mt Eden gaol and four prisoners were responsible for carting the stones to the hospital site.

However, with the completion of the new facility, all was not well.  Access to drugs was uncontrolled, wards were dirty, staff discipline and training was poor, and the hospital was grossly understaffed.  Things changed in 1883 when new medical and nursing staff were appointed.  The new matron was Miss Crisp from England who had been trained in the tradition of Florence Nightingale.  She transformed the hospital within months and instituted nursing training.  The hospital became a real hospital caring for sick patients rather than acting as an institution for poor old men suffering from alcoholism.

The building lasted 87 years being demolished in 1964.  It had become part of an array of satellite buildings on the 17 acre site including the Costley Ward (1898), Nurses Home (1911) and the Wallace Block (1923).

The new main tower block hospital was designed by architects Stephenson & Turner and completed in 1967.  This building is now attached by bridges to the main Auckland City Hospital (completed in 2003) which is also linked to the Starship Hospital for children, and forms part of the extensive modern hospital complex on the Grafton site.