Description: The hospital was founded as a charitable institution by public subscription in 1782. One of the major benefactors was John Key, a Nottingham banker who left a legacy of £500 for the building of a County Hospital. The Duke of Newcastle and the Nottingham Corporation each gave an acre of land for the purpose. The cost of the building, designed by the architect, John Simpson, was almost £5,000. Other prominent subscribers were Richard Arkwright, Sir Henry Cavendish and Peter Nightingale, great uncle of Florence. The formal opening of the building in September 1782 was a major event in Nottingham. The new hospital had 44 beds and a small staff. Almost immediately, further beds had to be found and the Derbyshire wing was opened in 1787. Many extensions and additions followed including a new wing, located on the Park Row frontage (1879) and the five storey circular building, the Jubilee Wing (opened 1900). The Cedars, a large house off Mansfield Road donated by Sir Charles Seely in 1897, provided 20 beds for convalescing patients. The first part of the twentieth century was a period of rapid growth with new buildings, renovations of existing buildings and creation of various specialist departments. Temporary buildings were erected during the First World War to accommodate sick and wounded soldiers. Further extensions were built including the Ropewalk Wing (1929), the Player Wing (1932) and the Castle Ward (1943). At the formation of the National Health Service in 1948 and the take over of the hospital by the Sheffield Regional Board, the hospital comprised 423 beds and 114 at the Cedars. Further developments after 1948 included the opening of an Intensive Care Unit in 1963 and of the Trent Wing in 1972. In the 1970s accommodation was created for medical students from Nottingham University's new Medical School. Following the opening of the University Hospital, the Queen's Medical Centre, in 1977, many services were transferred there from the General. The reduction of services continued throughout the 1980s and in 1992 the General Hospital finally, closed, with its functions moving either to the University Hospital or to the City Hospital.