St George's Hospital, Tooting & Hyde Park Corner

[Margaret]

The Sue Barton series of novels which I read from cover to cover about a student nurse, encouraged me more & more to want to be a nurse. I'd wanted to since having my tonsils out aged 10.
I moved up to London in 1969 from a small provincial market town in West Sussex to fulfil my dream  I left school in the July & started at St. George's Tooting in the August, a raw recruit, aged 18, very naiive, moving from one female institution (all girls secondary school) to the Nurses Home run by Home Sister! I had decided to do an S.E.N course rather than S.R.N as I didn't really have sufficient 'O' levels, (4) nor the confidence in case I flopped at the final exams!!
My room was very small furnished with a wardrobe, table & bed. We were told in no uncertain terms, that absolutely no men were allowed into the Home and if we wanted to go home on days off we had to sign the book kept by Home Sister! The ablutions were shared by probably 9 or 10 other nurses on the ground floor.
More later.....!

[wilfb]

Hi Margaret,

You have me hooked! Please do lets have the promised additions.

I have not yet been able to put my own carreer start on line and I lived at home (being close to the hospital) during my own initial training, but I do remember the nurses home being a bit spare and an assistant matron being resident by the front door! I can now admit safely to being, after I qualified and on night duty, being one of the sympathisers who unlocked the rear door just long enough for erring residents to slip in after 11pm (!!) while doing my rounds...