Liverpool Hospitals - Liverpool Maternity Hospital

'Liverpool: Then and Now' provide this picture

In 1796 a group of public spirited Liverpool ladies set up the Ladies’ Charity to provide medical care and assistance with childbirth to 'reputable married women and widows resident in the town'. This early example of specialisation did not operate in a hospital but took doctor and midwife services to patients’ homes. It carried on its work independently for almost 90 years. 

The first hospital of its kind in Liverpool, the Lying-in Hospital and Dispensary for the Diseases of Women and Children, was established in Horatio Street, Scotland Road which the council opened in November 1841 before it transferred to premises in Pembroke Place in October 1845. By the middle of the century new but smaller premises were needed and a new hospital was built in Myrtle Street, which opened in July 1862.The Ladies' Charity, which had been set up in 1796 with the object of alleviating the suffering of poor families by various means, included the provision of a midwife and where necessary, a doctor. By 1832 the Charity was described as being "... supported by subscription for the relief of poor married women in childbed at their own houses". The Ladies' Charity divided the town into districts, each district having its own midwife and accoucheur. During the 1860's it came to be felt that the Ladies' Charity and Lying-in Hospital should be united and in February 1869 the amalgamation of the two bodies was finally agreed. Thereafter the hospital was known as the Ladies' Charity and Lying-in Hospital. After much dispute in the period 1879 - 1882 the gynaecological and maternity functions of the Hospital were separated and a new Lying-in (maternity) Hospital was erected on a site at the corner of Brownlow Hill and Brownlow Street. This was completed in November 1884 and opened to patients in February 1885.

The hospital remained in these premises until its move to the present building in Oxford Street. The Liverpool Maternity Hospital opened on Oxford Street as the largest voluntary maternity hospital in Britain, as an evolution of the Brownlow Lying-in Hospital, to meet the demands of a growing city. The foundation stone of the Oxford Street hospital was laid in March 1924 by the Princess Mary, Viscountess Lascelles and it was officially opened by Christina Hartley, the social and welfare rights activist in September 1926. From this time onwards it was known as the Liverpool Maternity Hospital and joined the National Health Service in 1948.

A copy of John Lennon's birth certificate

Famous people born in the hospital include John Lennon. Julia Lennon gave birth to John Winston Lennon in the second-floor ward of the Oxford Street Maternity Hospital, near Abercromby Square in Liverpool, during World War II on the 9th of October 1940. As John later explained in his 1964 book 'In His Own Write': "I was bored on the 9th of October 1940 when, I believe, the Nasties were still booming us, led by Madolf Heatlump (who only had one). Anyway they didn't get me."

The Walton Sextuplets were born to Graham and Janet (née Leadbetter) Walton at the hospital in November 1983. After services transferred to the Liverpool Women's Hospital, the Liverpool Maternity Hospital closed in November 1995 and has since been converted into student accommodation called 'Lennon Studios'.

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2025/02/liverpool-hospitals-tuebrook-villa.html