 The hospital has its origins in Southfield House, a building situated near Ellen's Glen, a local nature reserve, which was designed by John Chesser in the Scottish baronial style.It opened as a tuberculosis sanatorium in 1875 and became part of the Royal Victoria Hospital in the 1920s.A new hospital, which was commissioned to replace the Southfield House facility, was procured under a Private Finance Initiative contract in February 1999.