As a purpose-built children’s hospital, Evelina London has a long and proud history of outstanding care, clinical excellence and innovation. It has been ranked as one of the world’s best children’s hospitals by US Newsweek, the American weekly news magazine.
Founded in 1869, it’s one of only two specialist children’s hospitals in London and provides end-to-end care from pre-birth, throughout childhood and into adult life. With themed floors, a conservatory, rooms with views, sunlight and open plan atrium, the hospital was designed around the needs of children and their families. Each year, we treat over 120,000 children.
Evelina London is co-located at St Thomas’ Hospital near Westminster Bridge, central London. This makes it a convenient location for children to receive care and for their family and friends to be by their side throughout their treatment journey.
World firsts include the first operation on a child with congenital heart disease – now called the Ross procedure, as well as a new method to conduct fetal 3D MRI scans to diagnose congenital heart disease while still in the womb.
World-class care
We’re proud that all our hospitals have been recognised as some of the world’s best by Newsweek, the American weekly news magazine.
This includes:
- Evelina London for children’s care.
- Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals for heart and lung care.
- Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospitals for gastroenterology, obstetrics (maternity care) and gynaecology.
Services and facilities
Inpatients wards for children's heart care
We provide paediatric cardiology inpatient care on Sky Ward at Evelina London Children’s Hospital and Rose Ward at Royal Brompton Hospital.
We use innovative imaging techniques to diagnose and monitor our patients, as well as the latest technologies to perform advanced heart treatments and surgical procedures.
Critical care and high dependency facilities are available on both wards, which are crucial in the management of children in the first hours and days after their heart surgery.
Snow Leopard ward
Our respiratory ward provides a ‘home away from home’ environment for children with long-term ventilation needs. The ward provides a comfortable place to help ease the move from hospital to home for long-term ventilation for children and their families.
Designed with the needs of children, Snow Leopard ward is a warm environment with bright colours and artwork to provide a holistically aesthetic facility to support wellbeing and help our young patients’ and families to feel at ease.
Children’s sleep centre
Located on Snow Leopard ward is our children’s sleep centre, offering detailed sleep studies to support patients requiring long-term ventilation.
With 3 dedicated bedrooms providing a full range of inpatient diagnostic sleep studies, sleep studies are carried out overnight with the option for daytime studies.
When it is time for a child to leave the ward, our team will help to make sure their sleep routine can be put in place at home.
Fetal cardiology service
We have the largest and longest established fetal cardiology service in the UK, overseeing 2,000 pregnancies a year for the diagnosis of congenital heart disease.
With St Thomas’ Westminster Maternity Suite at the same location, we can provide complete private care for mother and baby.
Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU)
Our paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) on Forest Ward provides complex care for critically ill babies and children.
We provide multidisciplinary support for the sickest children. This includes our cardiorespiratory centre which provides extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for children with severe cardiorespiratory failure.
We also have high-dependency bays and side rooms with en-suite facilities.
Neonatal unit
As one of the largest neonatal units in England caring for 1,000 babies a year, you can be assured of excellent care from our team.
It has a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), high dependency unit (HDU) and special care baby unit (SCBU) that all provide 24-hour care for premature and sick babies. This includes those with high dependency needs, such as babies with heart, lung or neurological conditions.
Our unit is also a leading centre for neonatal research in partnership with King’s College London. This enables us to advance innovation in treatments for babies.
Children's Day Surgery Unit
Our new Children’s Day Surgery Unit was opened by Her Royal Highness, The Princess of Wales, Evelina London’s Royal Patron. It helps children return home faster after their treatment, without needing to stay at hospital overnight.
The space-themed unit features 2 brand new operating theatres developed specifically for shorter day procedures. It has a comfortable lounge for patients and their families, all designed in bright, welcoming colours.
We offer a range of day surgery specialties at our centre, including ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgery, gastrointestinal surgery, plastic surgery, and urology.
All steps for your child’s day surgery, including surgery checks, the procedure, recovery and preparation for going home all take place in the same location.
Additional children’s services
Being in hospital can be a difficult time for children. At Evelina London there’s always something going on. From free TV, radio and WiFi services to special visitors in the form of our friendly therapy dogs, there’s something for everyone during your stay.
Evelina Hospital School
Evelina Hospital School, designated as an ‘Outstanding Provider’ by Ofsted, provides education for our young patients children. Our aim is to provide exceptional personalised education so that all pupils can achieve positive outcomes and feel valued, nurtured and empowered during their time with us.
We understand the challenges that children, young people and their families can come under when they are in hospital, and we believe that continued education is a central part of the recovery process. Pupils are given stimulating and challenging tasks and activities that build skills they can use at their home schools and beyond. We work flexibly to respond to our pupils’ differing needs and abilities as their health and wellbeing changes.
Play areas
There is a fun play area on the ground floor of the hospital with a big slide and lots of toys and games. Children may play here if they are waiting to see a doctor or nurse.
There are also play areas on the wards with books, games and computers to play on. Your nurse can show you where the nearest one is to your bed.
Parents’ room
We have a parents’ area that has TV in which you can relax. It has its own tea and coffee making facilities, microwave and a fridge in which you can store your own food.
Places to eat and shop
Evelina London is on the same location as St Thomas’ Hospital where we have a range of options for food and drinks. These include M&S Cafe and M&S Simply Food, Costa Coffee, Toms Riverside Cafe and Toms Shepherd Hall Restaurant. There is also a WHSmith and Stock Shop for daily essentials and women’s clothing.
Directions and opening times
Visiting hours
Friends and family are welcome to visit inpatients 7 days a week, between 12pm and 7pm. There is a maximum of 2 visitors per patient and only one visitor may stay overnight. In the emergency department, there is a maximum of 1 visitor per patient.
Please see our visitor information for further details.
Address
Evelina London Children’s Hospital is based in St Thomas’ Hospital:
St Thomas’ Hospital
Westminster Bridge Road
London
SE1 7EH
Finding the entrance:
You can reach the entrance to Evelina London by:
- walking through St Thomas’ Hospital and following the signs
- directly from Lambeth Palace Road (pedestrian access only)
Getting here
Explore the tabs below for useful information related to your journey.
Travelling by bus
There are cycle lanes and bus stop bypasses on Westminster Bridge Road and Lambeth Palace Road.
Travelling by tube
The nearest tube stations are:
- Westminster – District, Circle and Jubilee lines (10 minutes’ walk)
- Waterloo – Bakerloo, Jubilee and Northern lines (15 minutes’ walk)
- Lambeth North – Bakerloo line (15 minutes’ walk)
Travelling by train
Waterloo and Waterloo East, are the nearest railway stations, and a 10-15 minutes’ walk away.
Victoria station and Charing Cross station are 20–30 minutes’ walk away.
Our hospitals and many of our services are located in the Congestion Charging zone and the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ). Please use public transport whenever possible.
Parking is very limited and there is often a queue, there are signposted patient drop-off/collection points. If you do need to drive, our car park is open 24 hours a day and the charges are £3.20 per hour. There is dedicated motorcycle patient parking and free disabled patient parking upon production of your blue badge (which must be registered in your name).
Evelina London Children’s Hospital is situated inside London’s Congestion Charge/ULEZ zone. Please check the TFL website for further details on charges and times they apply, including exemptions from charges.
Discover our specialists at Evelina London Children's Hospital
Meet our team of world-leading experts at Evelina London Children’s Hospital. From specialist cardiology to urology, our paediatric specialists are here for your child
CQC rating
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is an organisation responsible for ensuring that health and social care services in England provide safe, high-quality care.
The CQC regularly checks our services to ensure they meet national standards for quality and safety. They rate services as outstanding, good, requiring improvement or inadequate.
Evelina London Children’s Hospital was rated ‘outstanding’ when it was last visited in September 2015.
You can read the full report from 2015 which includes the rating for Evelina London as part of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust on the CQC website.