Liverpool Hospitals - Brownlow Hill Infirmary

 

Brownlow Hill Workhouse Infirmary

Brownlow Hill Infirmary was a large workhouse infirmary notable for its role in advancing training of nurses. In 1801 it had become necessary to erect a Fever Hospital to the south of the main building of the Workhouse which would be bigger than all the other Liverpool Hospitals put together. As a house of recovery near the parochial workhouse, it was opened in 1806, for the admission of poor persons suffering under contagious diseases and was known as the Brownlow Hill Poor Law Infirmary. A report in 1805 by churchwarden Henderson had revealed that of 1600 paupers housed in the workhouse and nearby almshouses, only 20 were able-bodied men, with 437 unable to work due to sickness or infirmity. The Infirmary was a large stone edifice with a plain exterior, but was said to be commodious, having a convenient interior, and was maintained from the poor-rates and had a smallpox ward added in 1823. 

The Brownlow Hill Workhouse

 

It was not until March 1865 that permission was given for nurses to work in the Liverpool Workhouse Infirmary. William Rathbone had a nurse, Mary Robinson, to care for his seriously ill wife who eventually died in 1859, but he was so impressed with her care that he decided to hire Mary for a new assignment: in his own words, "to go into one of the poorest districts of Liverpool and try, in nursing the poor, to relieve suffering and to teach them the rules of health and comfort." Naturally, he paid all her expenses but was willing and eager to expand this project to other areas of Liverpool. So, in 1861 he wrote to Florence Nightingale at St. Thomas’s Hospital in London, asking for her advice. She dismissed the idea of trying to recruit experienced nurses, suggesting that he establish a brand-new training program instead. He followed Nightingale’s recommendations with a will and within a year, he had founded the Liverpool Training School and Home for Nurses at the Royal Liverpool Infirmary, entirely at his own expense. Rathbone and Florence Nightingale kept in contact and in May 1865 Florence sent Miss Agnes Jones to act as Superintendent with twelve nurses to provide professional nursing care in the workhouse setting at Liverpool Workhouse Infirmary ( more about Agnes here - http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2020/08/a-liverpool-exemplar-agnes-jones.html ). The job did not prove easy as the Infirmary contained 1350 patients rising at times to 1500. The vestry agreed that the pauper sick were better off being nursed by trained nurses but Miss Nightingale felt that it would be impossible to improve the workhouses and workhouse infirmaries, unless changes were made through an Act of Parliament. She approached Lord Palmerston directly, as she felt the Poor Law Board could never produce the necessary legislation. Lord Palmerston said that if she were to draft a bill, he would use his influence to get it through Cabinet, but this was not to be as he died on October 17th 1865.

The Workhouse Infirmary

 

In 1901 it was reported that the Nottinghamshire and English fast bowler John Jackson had died at the Workhouse Infirmary in his 69th year. Known as the 'demon bowler' his first class career extended from 1855 to 1866 but came to an end when he sustained a serious while playing against Yorkshire. When he visited Australia in 1863-64 he was considered one of the best fast bowlers in the country. Despite a small allowance from the Cricketers' Friendly Society, he spent his later years without a permanent address, on the brink of the workhouse whose doors he finally entered. Also, Annie Garvey, known as 'The Pier Head Squatter', collapsed in the street on her way to draw her old age pension and was moved to the Liverpool Workhouse Infirmary, Brownlow Hill where, after rallying slightly, she passed away on the 4th of June 1914 at the noted age of 107 years. ( more about here here - http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2021/03/a-liverpool-exemplar-annie-garvey.html ).

The need for the workhouse and its hospital gradually reduced during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the institution closing in 1928 and the site being put up for sale in 1930. It was acquired by the Roman Catholic church and the workhouse was demolished in 1931. The site is today occupied by Sir Edwyn Lutyen's Roman Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral.

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2024/12/liverpool-hospitals-womens-hospital.html