Liverpool Hospitals - Walton Hospital

 

The West Derby Union Workhouse at Rice Lane on Walton-on-the-Hill opened on the 15th of April 1868 and grew to become one of England's largest Poor Law hospitals. Designed by William Culshaw, who was also the architect of the nearby Toxteth Park Workhouse, the central clock tower concealed a large water storage tank. Providing facilities for healthy as well as sick inmates, during the early twentieth century it expanded its role as a hospital. It initially accommodated 1200 inmates and in 1879 a school and children's wards were added, built in the 'cottage style'. In 1905 the Infirmary was made available to the general population and from 1913 was no longer known as a workhouse but known as the Walton Institution. By 1914 the Infirmary could boast revolutionary medical services including an X-ray machine and in 1925 the site had expanded to cover 35 acres with its capacity expanding to 2500 inmates by 1930. The main building was a long three-storey T-shaped block with males accommodated at the east and females at the west. There were workshops, dormitories, an infirmary, a chapel and a children's quarantine block. After the 1929 Local Government Act, Poor Law Unions were abolished and the management, of what was by then known as just Walton Hospital, was transferred to Liverpool City Council and no longer had responsibilities for the healthy poor. 

Nurses sitting at tables during tea, in the dining hall at Walton Hospital in 1941

The Walton Centre for Neurology opened in 1941. During the Second World War the hospital was fully equipped for taking casualties and an emergency theatre was built, an air raid shelter along with an emergency ambulance station. Mary McCartney gave birth to James Paul McCartney in Walton Hospital on the 18th of June 1942, one of the many hospitals that she had worked at as a nurse on the maternity ward during her stint as a Midwife. Once a Sister in charge of the maternity ward, when she returned to have her first baby she was given five star treatment, her ex-colleagues insisting that she stayed on the private ward. Although he was named James, his parents added Paul as a middle name. It stuck, and that’s what his parents, Jim and Mary, called him from when he came home. Eighteen months later Jim and Mary's second son, Peter Michael was also born at Walton Hospital on the 7th of January 1944.

The hospital became part of the National Health Service in 1948 and became particularly known for its treatment of neurological problems. Walton Hospital, off Rice Lane, closed its doors in December 2006, with services transferring to Fazakerley. The hospital was used by 100,000 patients a year but had begun to decline in the early 1990s before it was merged with Fazakerley to create Aintree Hospitals Trust, with the casualty department closing in April 1994 when services were merged with Fazakerley's.

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2025/04/liverpool-hospitals-liverpool-stanley.html