Sidcup's Blue Benches
This bench commemorates 100 years of Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup.
Originally known as the Queen's Hospital during the First World War, it was where almost every soldier who had suffered a facial injury received pioneering plastic surgery led by surgeon and founder Sir Harold Gillies.
Blue benches were placed along the road leading from the hospital into Sidcup for wounded soldiers recovering from their operations to sit in peace. The benches were a marker to the local community that disfigured servicemen may be seated there.
As you sit and rest under the shade of the oak tree, grown from the Frognal 400 year old Turkey oak, spare a thought for the brave soldiers and surgeons who helped create the hospital we know and love today.
NHS
Oxleas
NHS Foundation Trust
9 September 2017
Open
