The hospital, which was established as part of an initiative by Professor Archibald Charteris to provide nursing training for deaconesses, was opened in 1894.

[1] The site chosen was adjacent to St Ninian's Mission which Charteris had established three years earlier.

[1] After being substantially rebuilt in the early 1930s, the hospital was officially re-opened by the Duke and Duchess of York in December 1936.

[1] The hospital joined the National Health Service in 1948 and closed in 1990.

[1] It served as the headquarters of NHS Lothian until the health board moved to Waverley Gate in 2010.