Not many places have played host to musician Glenn Miller, actor Bob Hope, military leader General Eisenhower and the Queen Mother, as well as being a healthcare centre for excellence.

But the Churchill Hospital, in Headington, Oxford, can boast all this as it celebrates its 60th birthday.

Staff at the hospital, in Old Road, Headington, celebrated the massive milestone on Sunday -- six decades after it was built to cater for bomb victims during the Second World War.

Doctors and nurses at the unit never did see the thousands of Blitz patients predicted by the British Ministry of War Protection.

Instead, when the Churchill was officially opened in 1942, by Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, it was taken over by the Americans, who had just joined the Allied war effort.

Ken Hanks, current facilities manager at the hospital, said: "The 2nd General Hospital, part of the American Army, took it over.

"Then, just before D-Day, they were relieved by the 91st General Hospital.

"It was also the main hospital for Pine Tree -- the code name for the American headquarters in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, and took a lot of American 8th Airforce casualties.

"It was quite fortuitous really that America joined the war, because they took over a lot of hospitals that had been built for bombing that never occurred."

After the war, the Churchill was handed over to Oxford City Council and became an NHS hospital.

Since then it has seen many changes, with new buildings to house expert clinicians in areas like transplantation, cancer care and urology.

It is also getting ready to take over many services currently undertaken at the Radcliffe Infirmary, in Woodstock Road, which is due to close in the next few years.

But despite the expansions, the Churchill has kept some of its original features, including the square outside the old main entrance.

Mr Hanks said: "Up until three years ago we still had at least one of the original Nissen huts on the site.

"It's an important hospital and I would hope that it will still be here in another 60 years.

"The one thing I hope is that whatever we do here we keep the main square."