Liverpool Hospitals - Royal Southern Hospital

The Southern and Toxteth Hospital was opened on the 17th of January 1842 in Greenland Street with 30 beds, but the demand for accommodation was so great that the number of beds was soon increased to 65. It was decided to build another storey on the building and a substantial portion of the funds required to complete this work was raised by a concert given by Jenny Lind at the Royal Amphitheatre in January 1849. The enlarged hospital was reopened with accommodation for 70 more patients. It was also known as 'The Dockers Hospital' as it was the nearest to the south docks.

The Jenny Lind Ward

 

With only 86 beds in use, it was not until after the Crimean War that the required 100 beds for the hospital to qualify as a school for medical students were in use. Despite numerous innovations the hospital was overcrowded and it was decided to build a new hospital in Caryl Street. The foundation stone was laid in October 1867 by the Earl Of Derby and the hospital formally opened by H.R.H. Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, on the 21st of May 1872. By Permission of Queen Victoria the title of "Royal" was given to the hospital, the title having been altered from the "Southern and Toxteth Hospital" to the "Southern Hospital" in 1857. An account, with plans of a new out-patient department of this hospital, were published in December 1910. It was entirely distinct from the hospital proper, and possessed the great advantage of enabling the entrance for the patients to be arranged in one street with the exit in another, an arrangement which prevented over-crowding and unnecessary intermingling of patients entering, awaiting treatment or, on being treated, leaving the department. The plan of the hospital was pavilion, with straight blocks having two large wards on either side of the central or administrative ward building. Nearly 3,000 in-patients and upwards of 14,500 out-patients were admitted for treatment during 1913. The Hospital in its annual ceremony for the presentation of the awards to the Nursing Staff in 1921 witnessed a varied programme consisting of songs, dances and sketches, presented by members of the Nursing Staff as produced by them for the entertainment of the patients at Christmas. The President, Mr. Thomas Woodsend, in opening the proceedings. said he had two very pleasant surprises to announce, two anonymous donors had befriended the hospital, one by a gift of two Victory Bonds of £5,000 each, and the other by a gift of X-Ray apparatus costing upwards of £600. Although no binding conditions were attached to the gift of £10,000 Victory Bonds, the donor favoured the use of the income from that to be for the social and educational benefit of the nurses, and he (the President) new of no more fitting occasion for the announcement of this handsome and noble gift. The Committee also acknowledged the anonymous donation of X-Ray apparatus, given as a token of gratitude for services rendered by a member of the Honorary Staff to members of the donor’s family. Another duty he had to perform was to declare open
the new Nurses' Home Extension, which had been so generously subscribed for by the public, to enable the Committee to accommodate a larger staff, and thereby alleviate the working hours and conditions of the life of the nurses.

In July 1937 the Liverpool United Hospitals Act received Royal Assent. The act amalgamated the four volumtary hospitals of Liverpool (the Royal Infirmary, the David Lewis Northern, the Royal Southern and the Stanley Hospitals) into a single body. In 1948 the governing body - The United Liverpool Hospitals - was established.

circa 1906

 

The Southern Hospital was evacuated in 1939 to premises in the Fazakerley Hospital for Infectious Diseases, and did not return until 1950. During the war the Caryl Street site was commandeered by the Admiralty as a training school for merchant navy gunners and named H.M.S.Wellesley. After services transferred to the Royal Liverpool Hospital, the Royal Southern Hospital closed in 1978.

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