Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral Now and Then Old Hospital photographs

Hi everyone, I'm new today and already on the scav! Does anyone have any pictures of the exterior and interiors of any of the old Wirral hospitals? Thanks.

Funny - someone's asked that before. Do you work for Wirral Trust? Anything to do with the 60th birthday?

Hi, no. I spent a lot of time in and out of hospitals when I was little and a school project has sparked off a search for memories. I remember the old children's hospital in Birkenhead, but cant remember the site it was on.

Woodchurch road is where the old childrens hospital was. Now the Christian centre or was? Haven't been up that way for a while.

Ward four Victoria Central Hospital 1957 and 1958 personally. It was worse than being in the army with those matrons. They saved my life though, I'll give them that.

grange mount and park road north are the only two i can think of!

Old VCH on Liscard Road

Children's Hospital, about 1920

Royal Liverpool Childrens Hospital, Telegraph Road, Heswall (where Tesco is now) built around 1902, closed 1985.

It's given me goosebumps looking at the front of the old children's hospital. I remember the waiting area with all the big old teddies set up on a high shelf around the walls.

What about the Wallasey womens hospital on Claremount road? I remember my mother going in there a couple of times. One of those forgotten ones I suppose?

Hi Sara.ive got no photo`s but I used to work in St Caths hospital about 20 yrs ago.I was there for 2 yrs on G block and I can tell you some stories about that place if you want to hear them.

Anyone have a picture of the old hospital that used to be on leasowe road?
I remember going in there when i was younger, we found loads of records of past patients in the attic and were happily reading them with amazement until the police came and turfed us out

the place was in the middle of demolition and still had allsorts of wierd things inside, amazing explore, sadly no digital cameras at the time to take photos

I remember going in there a couple of times too Ste, my mate lived around the corner at the end of Reeds Lane so we used to go there as summit to do haha! It was mad in that place, but of course we were young at the time and never realised the value of memories after the place had been knocked down...

I have seen some really good photo's in books, in fact I may just be able to recite a write up about the hospital. I was going to some time ago and never got around to it.

I shall have a look for the book today and post some stuff when I find it!

That would be great matt, cheers

The Liverpool Open Air Hospital for Children, Leasowe



Opened on 2nd July 1914, for the treatment of tuberculosis in children. Beds were on wheels and were pushed outside on the balconies all day (even in winter. The hospital became a general hospital in the 1970s and was closed in the 1980s. It survived for a short while as a Christian Centre caring for the elderly, owned by the Elim Pentecostal Church, but was later demolished.

I would love to hear stories from St. Catherines. The hospital on Claremount road was the Wallasey cottage hospital. There are mock tudor flats built on the land now.

I think the hospital on Leasowe Road was the old Leasowe small pox hospital

Not a very good picture of it, but its the only one I can find. The hospital is the building beyond the telegraph pole in this 1910 picture of Claremount Road.



The hospital opened in 1885 and closed in August 1980. Nightingale Lodge was built on the site.

It doesnt look like the same building. This one was built in 1866 and was situated in Byron Cottage, Back Lane, which is now st. Georges Road. Isnt St Georges Road at the bottom by St. Mary's College? Which is a road away from claremount.Dont know if there were two hospitals situated close together, or the layout of roads has changed.

Here's one from a book I have of the hospital on claremount.

there used to be a hospital in new ferry years and years ago, long before i was born but it was demolished (not sure if that was through the war or wot) - there's still parts of it present (down shorefields, new ferry)

That's the one Sarah and it was on Claremount road not St Georges. Remember it quite well.

Leasowe hospital was built on concrete rafts because of the boggy ground. It was a general hospital long before the seventies although not an A & E one. I visited my father there in the early sixties. It was like a journey into the back of beyond in those days as no bus service went past the place from Wallasey. Had to get off at Reeds lane/Reeds Avenue and walk. It was especially bad on a Sunday with the limited bus service.

It's strange what we take for granted these days yet it was only a short while ago that virtually everything shut down on a Sunday and hardly anyone had a car. There were some crazy rules about what a small shop could sell on a Sunday as well. That's another thread perhaps?

Did that hospital have a balcony that the nurses' would push the patients out on? I remember going to see my cousin, he had something contagious, we came to the hospital through woodland but could only see him on a high balcony when he was pushed out for a short while.

The whole idea of the hospital was to initially treat children with smallpox but that changed some years later to the treatment of tubercolosis. It was believed that fresh air was the best cure so patients would often be wheeled out onto the balcony in all weathers.

Here is a list of Wirral Hospitals in 1939

Birkenhead General Hospital - Park Road North (est. 1828)
Birkenhead Infectious Diseases Hospital - Tollemache Rd
Birkenhead Institution Hospital - Church Road
Birkenhead Maternity Hospital - 24, 26, 30 & 35 Grange Mount (est. 1846)
Birkenhead Municipal Hospital - Church Road
Birkenhead & Wirral Children's Hospital - Woodchurch Rd and Kielberg Convalescent Home - Noctorum
Children's Convalescent Home - West Kirby
Clatterbridge General Hospital
Cleaver Sanatorium for Children - Heswall
Ellen Gonner Home for Convalescent Children - The Promenade, Hoylake
Hoylake & West Kirby Cottage Hospital and District Nursing Association - Birkenhead Rd
Liverpool Open Air Hospital for Children, the Margaret Beavan Hospital - Leasowe, Cheshire
Pensby Convalescent Home
Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital - Heswall
Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital - Thingwall
Spital Infectious Hospital
'Torpenhow' Open Air School for Pre-Tubercular Children - Frankby, West Kirby
Victoria Central Hospital - Wallasey (founded 1897, opened 1901)
Wallasey Cottage Hospital
Wallasey Dispensary - Liscard Rd, Wallasey

Two more, although both closed before 1939.

Mill Lane Infectious Disease Hospital, opened 1887 (but not in this building), later became a Maternity Hospital.



Greasby Isolation Hospital (pictured in the late 50s) opened in 1879, closed in the early 1920s, the buildings were demolished in the 1980s

That bottom one became the library. The top one was the infectious diseases part of Mill lane. It currently houses the records department. The maternity were single storey buildings. I was born there and my last child was born there before Arrowe park opened up.

A did you know. There is a magnificent memorial in this hospital and it names every Wallasey man to be killed in the first world war. Really it should be on show in a more prominent place but if recent events regarding defacing war memorials is anything to go by perhaps not!

I went to look for the Mill Lane hospital and thought it had been demolished and turned into a carpark, I couldnt find it. You would have to pay to be admitted to this hospital I think a pauper paid the equivalant of 25 pence a week, and that included food, a doctors visit nurse care and his ale for the week!

Here is a list of Wirral Hospitals in 1902, this is from Gore's street directory (the 1939 list above was from the official Red Book list), as you can see this list isn't as complete.

Birkenhead Borough Hospital
Birkenhead Fever Hospital, Tollemache road, Birkenhead
Birkenhead Ladies' Charitable Institution and Lying-In Hospital, 24 Grange mount, Birkenhead.
Greasby Fever Hospital, Greasby
St Paul's Road (Birkenhead) Mission Dispensary, 32 St Paul's road, Tranmere, Birkenhead
Victoria Central Hospital, Liscard road, Liscard
Wallasey Dispensary, Victoria Central Hospital, Liscard road, Liscard
Wallasey Cottage Hospital, Claremont road, Wallasey
Wirral Hospital and Dispensary for Sick Children, Woodchurch road, Birkenhead
Wirral Homeopathic Dispensary, 53 Exmouth street, Birkenhead.

I'm not sure what you mean Sarah. It is still there although slightly changed from the old days. It was mainly a maternity hospital throughout my life time until Arrowe park was built. At the present time they are building one of those super surgeries on the site and there is still a walk in centre. It is now known as Victoria central hospital but the original central used to be in Liscard road. Bit naughty changing the name I thought because the original Victoria central was a proper hospital with A & E etc. Had two major operations there as a kid. No MRSA in those days because the matron even scared that off.

I thought it was right at the back of the hospital, past the x ray department, backing onto the old alley way called the cinder path by the allotments. When I went again last week there was no building there anymore just a carpark.

My dad was a fitter for all the NHS hospitals in the wirral for 30years! He was in charge of the maintenance from the boilers to the draw handles and was his job to allocate the work to each department / engineer!! I was taken into all these hospitals and clinics as a kid at weekends to "help out" som great old sights behind the scenes!! I remember Leasowe, Mill lane, old VCH in Liscard and St Caths!
i was born in Birkenhead Childrens Hospital in 1965!!

good work guys/girls very interesting

I thought the following information on the Leasowe Road Hospital may be of interest, I found it while going through some old Wirral Journals:

"Leasowe Sanatorium for Crippled Children and Hospital for Surgical Tuberculosis, to give it its original full name, was built through the driving force of Margaret Beavan who was the first woman Mayor of Liverpool in 1927/28. The idea for the Leasowe Sanatorium was first mooted in 1911 and subsequently a public appeal raised over £6,700 including several large donations from local shipping families, the Holts, Brocklebanks and Harrisons as well as from Mr A V Paton himself. The site itself had earlier been set aside for a smallpox isolation hospital, the land having been purchased but the development never going ahead.

Subsequently the foundation stone was laid on 21st July 1914 by Lord Derby, although the stone is inscribed 'laid by the Countess of Derby' (she was indisposed on the day!). The first patients arrived very soon afterwards onto the unusual 'open-air' wards.

Through the 20s, 30s and early 40s it served as a tuberculosis hospital not only for children but also for adults. With the development of the streptomycin antibiotic in the late 40s and early 50s the scourge of TB was largely conquered and the hospital gradually changed over to general medical use, specialising in burns and skin grafts as well as arthritis up to its closure in 1979. It subsequently served as a Christian Centre, retirement home and handicap centre before its final sad disappearance earlier this year [2000]."

[abridged from an article by Gordon Parker in the Wirral Champion Journal, Summer 2000]

Wow, thanks, you have got some good information there, there doesnt seem to be much about this place on the net.

:Happy:

I remember patients being out on the balconies in their beds at St. Catherines in the 1960s. I doubt if that was where your cousin was, though, unless the woodland was Mersey Park?

Birkenhead Ladies' Charitable Institution and Lying-In Hospital, 24 Grange mount, Birkenhead lol! I never knew that was the old name! I spent a week or so there after having my first son in St. Caths. in 1977. About 6 of us were transported there in a very rickety ambulance, all clutching our new babies. Grange Mount was a lovely place to be. There was an open fire in the ward and the nurses would sit there and knit! I remember the food was great too.

this site has nice picture of st catherines when it was a work house but i could not copy the picture

http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Birkenhead

I was in the old VCH in 1963 as a two year old scald patient and then from 1992 for 7 years worked as maintenance from St Caths but covering Mill lane and various Wirral clinics.

I didn't realize it at the time but both Mill Lane and St Caths had some great urban exploration places that I would love to revisit!
Spooky attics and underground maint corridors. I regret not taking photos at the time.

I was born in Mill Lane Maternity Hospital which is now the Minor injuries building (or was in 1998)and my great grandad is on the list of the war dead in the building.

St Caths,
A definate ghostly feel in one of the attics (we recorded some weird temperatures) and you could feel the change in the lack of heat as you walked through the space.

I think the hospital near Shorefields in New Ferry that Davey Martin is referring to was a special isolation hospital at the back of New Ferry Baths. I seem to remember it was a green wooden building and was used in the early 60s when there was an outbreak of smallpox in the area and several people died. In the early 70s ( I think), it was deliberately burned down by the fire brigade to make sure no infection survived. These are only vague memories and perhaps someone else has a fuller story.

Doncha just love piracy ?

Thats the one that was in leasowe!

Did ue their before it got knocked down, didnt use camera then though
Found lot and lots of paperwork in the attic of previous patients, the place was a goldmine of information but never took anything, guttered now, but i was only young at the time.

Heres a video submitted by soundlad which will be of significance to this post

[youtube]S9krEHZVQ-U[/youtube] Leasowe hospital 1:43

does anyone have any photos of the maternity hospital that was on grange mount, birkenhead (if they haven't already been posted)?? my bro and sis were born there, and now it's a load of posh gated flats, so i'm curious to see it

Torpenhow' Open Air School for Pre-Tubercular Children on Montgomery Hill, Frankby

This is now broken up into flats....

Has anyone got any more information about Torpenhow Open Air School?

This place seems to be a secret, I've looked into it before and not got very far.

really fascinating topic guys, great research

Hmmm! Sounds Like A Challenge and future post! He he!

What I do know about Torpenhow OAS is that is was designed by the architect William Edward Willink who also designed the Curnard Building.

The Port Sanitary Hospital was built in 1877,it was built for infectious diseases such as cholora and smallpox,a pier ran out from the hospital into the river so infected sailors could be transported easily to the hospital without spreading the infection to local people,it was closed in 1962.
In 1928 it was called Bebington infectious diseases hospital, 1948 it was called New Ferry smallpox hospital.
I live in the area near by and i remember the hospital,when we went to the baths we could see the back of the hospital and all these plates stacked up in the windows....that must of been the kitchens.
I remember when there was an outbreak of smallpox and when we were going to school my mum would tell us to cover our mouths with a scarf incase we caught it!!
My Nan told me a story many many years ago......she said once there was an outbreak of smallpox and one of the patients escaped from the hospital and was found in Woodhead street and everyone who lived in that area had to barricade themselves in their homes untill he was cought and taken back to the hospital,Nan lived in Seaview at the time,just off Woodhead street, now a car park.
I don't know what year it was burnt down but i know it stood empty for years, the Wimpy estate stands on it now and the baths area.

this is the hospital


staff accomadation


entrance from the river



chris.

Wallasey Cottage Hospital Occupied 2 different sites during its life, firstly on Back Lane, which is now St Georges Road, Then Later on Claremount. not sure on exact date of the location change or reason, but here are 2 maps showing the 2 different locations;

Good find Waddi

1866-1885 it was at St Georges Road

1885-1952 at Claremount Road

Clicky

Thanks for the dates,

Well, the inlaws live on that section of St Georges and I lived with them for a few years, between getting married and affording our own place, so it was just 1 of those things I picked up on.

Has anyone noticed the typo I made on the 2nd maps description? "Hopital" lol.

I did notice Waddi but i thought it was somewhere you went with a bad leg.

Birkenhead General Hospital viewed from Park Road North in 1959. Formerly known as Borough Hospital. The hospital closed in 1982.

I have a birth certificate of my great grandfather, Thomas Williams. On it, it states he was born in 1894 in the Lying-In Hospital on Conway Street, Birkenhead. Was this the Maternity Hospital (Birkenhead) - I've tried to do a bit of research myself, but came back with nothing. It would be good to see a photo of it.

Conway Street and Park Road North are one and the same, the Hospital on Conway Street is Birkenhead General Hospital mentioned previously in this thread.

Lovely, thank you!

Thanks for the photos of the Port Sanitary Chris.

Don't know if it's still there, but back in the mid 80's the surrounding wall was still there. The new housing estate is further over where the baths were if my memory's holding up.

The wall and land was still there long after they at least started building the new estate.

The 'woodland' bit does not fit in with Leasowe - it was a windswept place facing out to the sea and directly facing onto Leasowe Road - no trees around really - the odd Gorse bush !

Think the woodland and isolation points to Clatterbridge - which I believe was originally founded as an isolation hospital....

Maternity Hospital on Grange Mount opened in 1846 - so pssibly a mistake on the cert.
Birkenhead General was definitely Park Road North near to the Laird School of Art.

Wondering if there was a separate 'lying-in' hospital on Conway Street.

For the youngsters used to centralised NHS services (read Arrowe Park) in the old days there were full maternity facilities at the general hospitals - I can remember St Caths, the General and the VCH all having materrnity facilities.

The Birkenhead Borough hospital 1910, also known as the General, compared with Paulwirral pic, when was the wing added?

Extensions were made in 1933 to the General Hospital.

hi i was in a place like you have discribed it was thingwall convalesence hospital,i had asian flu,in the 50s and was sent there to recuperate, you went down a long lane but before you got to the hospital there was a little lodge with a barrier and a man there to let you in.it was like being in a a big woodland, at night they would wheel are beds out on to a verrander,supposed to help you get better, it was where bupa is in thingwall,you still walk down the same lane to get to bupa but they have built houses at the top.

Hi I too went to the Thingwall Hospital when I was 3, as I had TB I was in there for about 5 months.We had to sit in these great big high chairs (or they seemed so at the time!) and you couldnt get out til you had eaten all your dinner-id spend hours in those chairs with cold food in front of me,watchin all the other kids play..There was a lovely little playhouse outside with little tables an chairs an a little t.set-my favourate place!

Anyone got any pictures of Heathfield Maternity Hospital in Bromborough?

sure there is a pic of this on here somewhere mate! i was born there 1974!

Reading this thread and seeing the childrens hospital in Heswall mentioned.....when it closed in the mid 80's the old steam roller that was round the back (or was it the front !!!) was sold and has now been restored.
The owner asked me if i had any pictures of the roller when it was at the hospital, it was painted in bright colours with pictures of Mr Men painted on it, i have so far not been able to find any at all.
Just wondering if any members on here have one ?, it was at the hozzi from the 50's until it closed.

Good news and bad .... Good news is that there are photos around, I've seen them ..... Bad news, I haven't go a clue where they are but will keep my eye out.

Thanks for your reply diggingdeeper.

This is what it looks like now.

Eddison had loads of old steamrollers, when they came to the end of their working life they where given to a school or play ground for the kids to play on, there where loads dotted round the country at one time.

I used to go with my Mother for her maternity check ups at The Childrens Hospital, Birkenhead back in the 60's. The smell of strong disinfectant would hit you well before reaching the entrance. I remember the Nurses looking so strict and formal.

Anyone got any photo's of the old Clatterbridge hospital before they pulled it down and moved the entrance? I was born there and remember it well but can't find any photographs.