Liverpool Hospitals - Liverpool Royal Infirmary

 

Liverpool Royal Infirmary on Brownlow Hill

Liverpool's first Infirmary was a voluntary hospital erected 'for those in distress from all parts of the nation and Ireland'. The Infirmary was brought about due, in part, to the unsanitary conditions of the town at the time. In 1700 the population was about 5000 but by 1749 it had quadrupled to 20,000 . With the population growing fast the people were housed in ill drained streets and the unsanitary conditions led to widespread illness, so it was decided to open an Infirmary. Founded in 1743, it took 6 years to build the city's first General Infirmary at a cost of £2,600, a small building on Shaw's Brow, the site of the Great Heath, and was opened by the 11th Earl of Derby on the 25th of March 1749, on part of the site which is now occupied by St George's Hall. Built of brick and faced with stone it was expanded in 1771 and was three storeys high. On the ground floor there were two exam rooms, a lodging room, an apothecary, and the Hospice Chapel. The second floor held four wards, an operating room and two bedrooms for nurses. The kitchen, wash-house, laundry and laboratory were situated in the cellar. On opening it could only accommodate around 30 patients at any one time but fundraising continued to aid its expansion and staff were able to admit 122 patients by the end of the first year. In the 1780s Dr James Currie argued for separate care to be given to patients suffering from mental illness and an asylum was built within the grounds for this purpose.

In 1823 a new hospital and asylum was built on higher and healthier ground at the top of Brownlow Street at Brownlow Hill and renamed the Liverpool Royal Infirmary following Queen Victoria's visit in 1851. The old Infirmary was closed in 1826 and was eventually demolished in 1842 to make way for St George's Hall. The new building was designed in the Greek Revival style by John Foster Junior and this second incarnation had enough space to house 230 beds and saw many innovative and entrepreneurial physicians ply their learned craft. In 1859 William Rathbone instituted the first district nursing service in the country and in 1862 established the Training School for Nurses to service the Infirmary and the district nursing service. This was after he had written to Florence Nightingale, who advised him to start a nurse training school and home for nurses attached to the Royal Infirmary and with typical Victorian organisation and energy this was built by May 1863. By the 1860s with the second infirmary already badly overcrowded and ill equipped to cope with the mounting pressures of population, medical services and medical education provision, in 1885, Sir Alfred Waterhouse was commissioned to submit plans for the new Liverpool Royal Infirmary. He also corresponded with Florence Nightingale and she succeeded in influencing some of his designs including the pavilion (Nightingale) wards, their height and number of beds ensuring sufficient daylight and ventilation.

A Nightingale Ward

 

In 1882 the trustees were determined to rebuild a new Infirmary based on the guiding principles of Florence Nightingale. The area bounded by Brownlow Street, Brownlow Hill, Ashton Street and Pembroke Place had now become a well established medical quarter, therefore the deeds of numerous small properties were acquired on the east side of Brownlow Street, Pemboke Place and Pembroke Gardens. Some 2000 people watched the Earl of Derby lay the foundation stone on the 28th of October 1887 as the new Infirmary building designed by Alfred Waterhouse was constructed on this site at a final cost of £181,000 and was opened by Queen Victoria's grandson, the Duke of Clarence and Avondale, with the first patients being admitted on 13th of November 1889.

Liverpool Royal Infirmary at Pembroke Place

The building was an impressive example of Victorian design, in red brick and although this Gothic and neo-Romanesque exterior harked back to a by-gone age, the interior incorporated state of the art technology. By 1908 the number of outpatients visits had risen significantly and so the foundation stone for a new out-patient building, which incorporated a large hall which could accommodate up to 200 people, was laid by the 17th Earl of Derby on the 7th of July 1909. This building, located on the corner of Brownlow Street and Pembroke Place, was opened by the 6th Earl of Sefton on the 29th of March 1911 and was designed by James Francis Doyle. In 1948 it was transferred to state management under the National Health service.

After eighty nine years, having served the community and witnessed many important changes in medical and nursing techniques, medical services were transferred to the new Royal Liverpool University Hospital on Prescot Street and the building was boarded up and remained unoccupied for many years until, in 1995, the University of Liverpool took ownership of the grade 2 listed building, now known as the Waterhouse Building, and the gradual refurbishment commenced. Most of the original wards were converted into state of the art teaching and research laboratories, used by Liverpool Medical school for clinical skills teaching and examinations. The old Orthopaedic ward is now a virtual reality radiotherapy training suite and Thornton Ward houses the Liverpool Cancer Trials Unit. 

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