The changes made by the New Poor Law of 1834 saw The West Derby Union formed in 1837 to oversee the poor of the parishes which stretched from Garston in the south to Ince Blundell in the north. Mill Road Hospital, originally Mill Road Maternity Hospital, started life as the West Derby Workhouse with building starting in 1838 by the West Derby Union Board of Guardians as the 'Workhouse for the Sick Poor' who had purchased land in Mill Lane to build the Workhouse which eventually opened in 1841.
By 1862 however the issue of looking after the able-bodied poor and the sick poor was becoming a problem and so it was decided to purchase thirty-seven acres at Walton-on-the Hill for a new workhouse. The Board of Guardians intended to sell both the hospital at West Derby Road and the Workhouse at Mill Road to pay for the new venture. But the need for accommodation had been underestimated and it was realised that the new Walton workhouse would not be big enough and so what had been Mill Road Workhouse was kept and became a workhouse hospital for the sick poor. The decision was not popular with the local residents who had been led to believe that the threat of contagious diseases was to be removed with the transfer of patients. However, despite a number of protests, the workhouse hospital at Mill Road remained. The threat of disease caused by unsanitary conditions together with an inadequate and outdated building, led to the decision to rebuild the workhouse hospital.
The hospital was busy during the Second World War and on the 14th of September 1939 an accidental explosion at the docks brought in eighty patients and it became obvious that the hospital was under-prepared for casualties of war. Action such as transferring patients to suburban hospitals was taken to ensure that the hospital could cope as it was severely damaged by air raids, so patients in 1941 were transferred to Broadgreen Hospital where 610 beds were made available for the Mill Road patients. It is said that over 80 people died when Liverpool’s Mill Road Hospital was bombed on the night of the 3rd of May, 1941 as a bomb landed in the courtyard at the rear of the hospital. Many babies and their mothers died that night as well as ambulance drivers and members of staff, while dozens more were seriously injured. Fortunately the new outpatient block was not damaged and so after the war it was decided to salvage and make good what was left of Mill Road and to turn it into a hospital that specialised in obstetrics (child-birth) and gynaecology (problems only affecting women). Mill Road Maternity Unit was opened on the 5th of June 1947 at the hospital and was one of many maternity hospitals which had to cope with the post-war baby boom and the increase in the number of births. In 1950 the Obstetrical Flying Unit (later run in partnership with Liverpool Maternity Hospital) was introduced so a squad of specialists could be used to attend difficult home births. Improvements during the mid-1950's included additional isolation accommodation, facilities for sick antenatal patients, and a residential section for medical students and a new premature baby unit. A dedicated artificial limb and appliance centre, the first in the country, was built at the Mill Road site and opened on 25 July 1961. Changes within the NHS in the mid 1970s almost saw the closure of Mill Road as cost-cutting measures were called for by Liverpool Area Health Authority. A compromise was found where Mill Road was to stay open, taking on the maternity units of Broadgreen and Sefton General.
In November 1993 the main part of the hospital was closed and was eventually replaced by a larger maternity hospital in Toxteth, which opened in 1995 as Liverpool Women's Hospital.
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2025/01/liverpool-hospitals-lock-hospital.html
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