The hospital first opened on 15 November 1876 as a children's infirmary in Brightmore House, on Brook Hill in Sheffield.

[1] Two years later it moved to its current site on Western Bank where it was accommodated in a pair of semi-detached houses.

A new building on Brook Hill was opened in 1903, designed by the architect John Dodsley Webster.

[1] The accident and emergency department was extended in the 1970s and services were transferred from the Northern General Hospital in the 1990s.

[5] The new wing provides a new hospital main entrance, outpatients consulting suites, specialist diagnostic and treatment areas, and three new wards.