I have often walked past number 27 Berkeley Square in London’s Mayfair. I am usually on my way to or from the Gagosian Gallery just north of the square. Today, on my way to view some paintings by René Magritte on display at the Gagosian until 12 December 2026, I spotted something I had not noticed before. It was a commemorative plaque attached to number 27, which was constructed between 1821 and 1823.

The plaque commemorates the fact that number 27 Berkeley Square was once used as a hospital. A website that details former hospitals (https://ezitis.myzen.co.uk/27berkeleysq.html) provided plenty of information about this building that served as a hospital between 1916 and 1918.

On 1 March 1916, Mrs FW Salisbury-Jones opened an auxiliary hospital for convalescent officers in her home at 27 Berkeley Square.  It was connected with Queen Alexandra’s Military Hospital at Millbank and had 18 beds.

The website related:

“Mrs Salisbury-Jones was the Commandant and the nursing staff consisted of 2 trained nurses, and 12 full-time and 9 part-time members of a Voluntary Aid Detachment. The War Office later requested that accommodation be increased; the Hospital then had 22 beds.”

Mrs Salisbury-Jones’s neighbour, Mrs Asher, who lived at number 30:

“… allowed the two nurses to lodge in her house for the duration of the war, and even lent her butler to work as an orderly at the Hospital.”

The hospital closed in May 1919. By then, it had admitted 496 patients, of whom only one died.

The commemorative plaque reproduces the words on a certificate of gratitude issued by the War Office and is signed by Winston S Churchill.

Currently, the former hospital is privately owned and contains offices. If as the song goes, a nightingale sung in Berkeley Square, I wonder how many of the patients in the short-lived hospital heard it.