Born, London, 1934; educated at King Alfred's School, Hampstead, and Balliol College, Oxford, where he was tutored by and became friends with historian Christopher Hill; during this time he became a Marxist, joining the Communist Party and the Communist Party Historian's Group; the latter an organisation formed by E.P.Thompson, Christopher Hill, Rodney Hilton, Eric Hobsbawm, Maurice Dobb and others and which was responsible for founding the journal Past and Present, which aimed to pioneer the study of working class history; left the Communist Party, 1956, and was one of the founder editors, together with Stuart Hall and Charles Taylor, of what was soon to become the New Left Review; appointed Tutor in Sociology at Ruskin College, Oxford, 1962; launched a series of national workshops, starting in 1966, on topics previously neglected including women's history, the history of childhood, empire and patriotism, the changing definitions of nations and the cultural diversity of Britain. Participation in these workshops was to remain extremely popular into the 1970s and 1980s, and many of its contributors became initial writers for the History Workshop Journal, founded in 1975; appointed Professor at the University of East London in 1996, although died shortly after. His publications include: Village Life and Labour (1975), Miners, Quarrymen and Saltworkers (1977), People's History and Socialist Theory (1981), East End Underworld (1981), Culture, Ideology and Politics (1983), Theatres of the Left: 1880-1935 (1985), The Lost World of Communism (1986), The Enemy Within: The Miners' Strike of 1984 (1987), Patriotism: The Making and Unmaking of British National Identity (1989), Patriotsm: Minorities and Outsiders (1989), The Myths We Live By (1990), Theatres of Memory (1996) and Island Stories: Unravelling Britain (1997).
Nothing is known about the author of these diaries.
George Sampson (1873-1950) was a noted educationist who wrote widely on the teaching of English and other subjects. He was an Inspector of Schools (LCC); General Secretary of the English Association; and a member of the Departmental Committee on Teaching of English in England, and the Cambridge Advisory Committee on Religious Instruction. He died in 1950.
Sambon was intermittently employed by the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum from 1903 onwards.
He organised the 11th International Congress of Medicine (Rome, 1894).
The Salvation Army's Musical Instrument Factory began at the Trade Headquarters, 56 Southwark Street, in 1889, with a staff of 2 men and a boy, and moved with the Trade Headquarters to 98-102 Clerkenwell Road in 1890. For the first three years, the factory only assembled cornets and did repairs. The factory began making valves and manufacturing all brass band instruments c1893. The first full set of instruments was made for Luton 2 corps in 1894 and the first plated set for Derby 2 (or Oldham 2) band in 1896. In 1897, the factory again moved with the Trade Department to 79-91 Fortess Road, Kentish Town, but in 1901 the instrument factory moved with the printing works to St Albans. The factory won Gold Medals at exhibitions in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1906 and 1907 and at the Franco-British Exhibition in London in 1908. The lease of the factory transferred with 8 employees to Boosey and Hawkes Ltd on 24 February 1972.
A Salvation Army barracks in Waltham Road was first registered in 1885, and re-registered as a hall in 1897. The Salvation Army Citadel in Adelaide Road is said to have been opened in 1883, but it was not registered until 1905; it seems most likely to have been the successor to the earlier Waltham Road barracks. In 1961 this remained the headquarters of the Army in Southall.
From: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 4: Harmondsworth, Hayes, Norwood with Southall, Hillingdon with Uxbridge, Ickenham, Northolt, Perivale, Ruislip, Edgware, Harrow with Pinner (1971), pp. 52-53.
In 1891 the Charter of the Methodist and General Assurance Society came into the possession of The Salvation Army. The name became Salvation Army Life Assurance in connexion with The Methodist and General Assurance Society, Limited but was shortened to The Salvation Army Assurance Society, Limited in 1904. The Society operated under this name until 1972 when it merged with the Wesleyan and General Assurance Society which continues to operate today (October 2013) independently of The Salvation Army.
Until the Second World War, the Chief Office of the Salvation Army Assurance Society was in London, alongside International Headquarters in Queen Victoria Street, but for the duration of the War the offices were evacuated to 'Rosehill', a country house near Reading. During 1947, the Chief Office moved to new premises at 220-226 Tottenham Court Road, London W1, but 'Rosehill' was retained until 1960 as a Conference Centre.
The dual aims of the Society were to undertake life insurance business (industrial and ordinary) and to promote and support the religious and charitable work of The Salvation Army. The Society was staffed by officers and non-officers in its Chief Offices and by non-officer 'agents' in its branches. The vast majority of agents and non-officer clerical staff employed by the Society were Salvationists to aid it in accomplishing its evangelical objectives. The Society began issuing life assurance policies in 1894. It also produced several successful bands and songster brigades including The Assurance Songsters and The Rosehill Band.
In 1879, the first Salvation Army printing office was in Fieldgate Street, Whitechapel, at the rear of the Headquarters at 272 Whitechapel Road. Later the printing works was at 96 Southwark Street, London SE (c1886) and 56 Southwark Street (c1889), though the address 15a Fieldgate Street still appeared in 'The War Cry' and 'The Young Soldier' during this period. In March 1890 it moved to Clerkenwell Road, and then in November 1901 it finally moved to St Albans where it was to be for the next 90 years. From 1915 onwards, it was known as The Campfield Press, printing Salvation Army publications and other independent work. The press closed in October 1991. Its building in St Albans was demolished in 1993.
The foundation of the UK territory dates from the earliest formation of The Salvation Army - prior to the adoption of that title in 1878 - when in July 1865 William Booth took charge of a mission in the East End of London. Some UK corps were first established as Christian Mission stations.
Throughout the Army's history, work in this geographical area has been organised in a variety of forms and territories, but before 1990 these were all part of International Headquarters administration. However, in 1990 a restructuring occurred and today the UK Territory is separate from International Headquarters and under a single command like the Army's other territories.
UK Territory belongs to the Army's Europe Zone and includes the Channel Islands, Isle of Man, the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. UK Territorial Headquarters are located at 101 Newington Causeway, London.
The training of men officers began experimentally in Manchester under Ballington Booth in 1879, and in the following year started on a regular basis in two small Training Homes in Hackney: for women, at Gore Road, and for men, at Devonshire House, Mare Street. In November 1881, the former London Orphan Asylum, Clapton was acquired for use as the National Training Barracks and Congress Hall. This served as the principal centre for training officers until the new William Booth Memorial Training College was opened at Denmark Hill in 1929, though during the late 1880s and 1890s, some of the training of cadets took place in regional depots or garrisons, in addition to training at Clapton. The training centres were known at various times as the Training Home, Training Garrison, or Training College, and by 1904 the centre at Clapton had become the International Training College, though later it was known as the International Training Garrison (c 1917-1929). For a few years in the early 1920s additional accommodation at the Mildmay Conference Centre was used for men cadets. At Denmark Hill, the college was generally known as the International Training College (ITC), or the William Booth Memorial Training College until 2000, when the name was changed to the William Booth College.
Grete Salus, nee Gronner, was born in 1910 in Böhmisch-Trübau, today Ceská Trebová, Czech Republic. After schooling she studied at a dance school in Dresden. She moved to Prague with her husband, Dr Fritz Salus, with whom she married in 1934, and taught dance. They were both deported first to Theresienstadt, 1942, then to Auschwitz, 1944. Fritz was murdered shortly after arrival in Auschwitz as Grete discovered after her liberation. She was taken along with 500 other women to Oederan in Saxony, a sub-camp of Flossenbürg, where the women were forced into slave labour in the armaments and and building industries. She was evacuated in April 1945 and returned by train to Theresienstadt, where along with 17,000 other survivors she was liberated by the Red Army.
She returned to Prague for a few years after the war. In 1949, having given birth to her daughter, Nomi, she emigrated to Israel where she ended up working as a choreographer and gymnastics teacher at a home for orphans from the Holocaust. She died in 1995.
Born, 1903; Education: Emigrated to Canada with family in 1911; attended primary school in Calgary; Crescent Heights Collegiate Institute, Calgary; University of Alberta, Edmonton; Harvard (1924) and Harvard Gardens, Soledad, Cuba; Career: United Fruit Company, Columbia; US National Research Fellowship at Harvard; Institute of Entomology laboratory, Farnham Royal; research student at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (1931); Fellow of King's College, Cambridge (1933-2003); University Lecturer in Zoology, Cambridge University (1937-1965); war work for Ministry of Agriculture on the control of wireworms; Tutor for Advanced Students, King's College, Cambridge (1945-1951); collected speicimens in East Africa (1948-1949); field collection in Pakistan (1958-1959); Reader in Animal Ecology, University of Cambridge (1965-1971); Fellow of the Royal Society, 1956; died, 2003.
This tea company, operating in Assam, India, 1885-1978, was part of the Inchcape Group of companies.
The Gluckstein and Salmon families grew to prominence in the second half of the nineteenth century through their involvement in the tobacco industry. Beginning as small-time cigar manufacturers, by the turn of the century Salmon and Gluckstein Ltd was the world's largest retail tobacconist, owning 140 shops in 1901. The business was started in 1855 by Samuel Gluckstein who, having arrived in London in 1841 from Germany, began working in the Jewish tobacco industry. The first business operated from Crown Street, Soho, and by 1864, when the firm was incorporated, Samuel Gluckstein had been joined by Henry Gluckstein and Laurence Abrahams. By that date the business had relocated to 43 Leman Street.
In 1870 a difference of opinion concerning the sharing of the profits resulted in the firm's dissolution. Henry Gluckstein and Laurence Abrahams went on to found Abrahams & Gluckstein, cigar manufacturers of 26 Whitechapel High Street, while Samuel Gluckstein formed a partnership with his two sons Isidore and Montague Gluckstein. They were also joined by Barnett Salmon, a tobacco salesman, who later became Samuel's son-in-law by marrying Helena Gluckstein. In 1873 Samuel Gluckstein died leaving the business to his two sons and Barnett Salmon.
In order to avoid future family disputes the three men decided to form a family fund by pooling their resources. The principle of the venture was to encourage the strong to support the weak, with each member withdrawing what was required. As the number of members increased over the years, a more ordered system developed, but essentially this tightly-organised pooling arrangement formed the basis of the bulk of the family's business activities from the late nineteenth century onwards.
Until 1887 these business interests were centred on the firm of Salmon and Gluckstein, tobacco manufacturers and tobacconists. From 1887, however, Montague Gluckstein became interested in the idea of providing catering services for the large exhibitions which were sweeping Victorian Britain. Judging the business of catering to be beneath them, the family only gave their support to Montague on the understanding that the family name would not be used. Accordingly, Montague began searching for a suitable figurehead for his new venture, finding him in Joseph Lyons, a distant family relation. As a result the family company of J. Lyons and Co. was formed.
Sir Admiral Nowell Salmon joined the Navy as a Volunteer First Class in 1847 and served on THESIS at the South American Station during the period 1851-53. He was promoted to First Mate in 1854 and would go on to serve on JAMES WHATT in the Baltic, gaining the Baltic medal. In January 1856. He was promoted to Lieutenant and made commander in March 1856. During the Indian Mutiny of 1857 he went into action in the town of Lucknow, under Peel. Peel then called for volunteers to climb a tree next to the fortified temple in order to spot grenade throwers Sir Admiral Nowell Salmon volunteered and received the Victoria Cross. He then joined SHERMAN in May 1853. During the period 1859-61 He was in control of ICARUS, in the Mediterranean and the West Indies stations and in 1863 was promoted to Captain, commanding DEFENCE in the West Indies. In 1878 Salmon commanded SWIFTSHORE and by 1885 was promoted to Vice Admiral. He served as the Commander in Chief of the China Station 1888-1891 and became an Admiral on 10th September 1891. He then served as the Commander in Chief of Portsmouth 1894-7. In 1899 he was made Admiral of the Fleet. He retired in 1905, and lived in retirement at Curdridge Grange, Botley, Hampshire. Sir Admiral Nowell Salmon died on 14th February 1912. In 1866 Sir Admiral Nowell Salmon married Emily Augusta.
Born 1892; Pte, 7 (Cyclist) Bn, Welch Regt, 1908; Sgt, 1914; 2 Lt, Special Reserve, 1915; 16 Bn (Cardiff City), Welch Regt; served in France, Somme, Ypres, 1915-1916; MC, 1917; Company Commander, 1 (Service) Bn, 1918; Reserve of Officers, demobilised, 1919; Recalled to duty, Capt, Maj, Home/Service Bn, Welch Regt, 1939; Seconded to RAF, Lt Col, OC RAF Regiment Units, Operation TORCH, 1942; Commander RAF Regt (CRAFR) Mediterranean theatre, 1942-1945, North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Greece, Yugoslavia; OBE, CBE, 1945; demobilised, 1945; Chairman of Welch Regt Officers Association, 1950-?; Treasurer, National Museum of Wales, 1963-82; Noted ornithologist, Gold Medal of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), 1971; Died 1985.
Salkey's Score was a symposium and celebration around the work of the Jamaican writer, Andrew Salkey. He was a supporter and shareholder in Bogle-L'Ouverture. Born in January 1928, he was approaching his 65th birthday. It took place on 19-20 June 1992, 3 years prior to his death. Initiated by Jessica Huntley a committee comprising of herself, Louis James, John la Rose, Marc Matthews, Mervyn Morris, Jason Salkey, Anne Walmsley and Ronald Warwick was formed. The event was held in conjunction with the Commonwealth Institute and took place at that venue.
The two day symposium was attended by Andrew Salkey, his wife Patricia and his sons Eliot and Jason. It brought together academics, literary critics and writers from the Caribbean, England and America. Conference panels included Ansel Wong, Alva Clarke, John Figueroa, Jeremy Verity, Mervyn Morris, Peter Nazareth, Pedro Perez Sarduy, Anne Walmsley, Louis James, John La Rose, Samuel Selvon and Kamau Braithwaite. A Keynote Address was delivered by Trevor McDonald, the television news presenter. Other participants included Margaret Busby, Merle Collins and Alistair Niven. Salkey's poetry, fiction, children's fiction, anthologies, travelogues and his broadcasting work was showcased.
Tributes were given to Salkey for:
His work in London in the 1960s and 1970s with the Caribbean Artist's Movement;
His journalism on the radio programme 'Caribbean Voices';
Developing the teaching of Caribbean writing in schools;
The importance he gave to the relationship of Africa to personal and communal Caribean identity;
His work in Cuba;
His prolific output of novels, poetry and other writings.
Andrew Salkey, writer, and radio interviewer at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), poet and essayist, was born as Felix Andrew Alexander Salkey in 1928 at Colón, Panama. He died in April 1995 at Amherst, Massachusetts, United States of America.
See the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography for a detailed biography.
In 1864 Isaac Salaman, ostrich feather manufacturer of 69 Lamb's Conduit Street, withdrew from his partnership with two of his sons Myer and Nathan Salaman. They continued the business at 45 (later 44-47) Monkwell Street and (from 1893) Falcon Square under the name of Isaac Salaman and Company.
The company also operated as ostrich feather manufacturers, sellers and importers in Cape Town, Paris and New York. In 1895 Myer Salaman sold the business to a new company, Isaac Salaman and Company Ltd, which was registered on 31 May 1895. This company existed until 1943.
George Edward Bateman Saintsbury was born in Southampton and educated at King's College School, London, and Merton College, Oxford. He worked as a schoolteacher for several years before turning to journalism, becoming known as an expert reviewer and literary critic, writing many articles and several books on both French and English literature. Between 1895 and 1915, Saintsbury was Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature at the University of Edinburgh. He retired to Bath and continued to read and write extensively until his death.
Saint Thomas' House, initially known as the College House Extension, was built between 1925-1927 on a site in Lambeth Palace Road opposite Saint Thomas' Hospital, as a memorial to those connected with Saint Thomas' Hospital who died in the First World War. It provided accommodation and club facilities for medical students and house officers. During the Second World War several floors were occupied by hospital maids. The architect was Harold W. Currey.
The Saint Thomas' Hospital Group was formed in 1948 when the National Health Service was established by the National Health Service Act 1946. Originally it included only Saint Thomas' Hospital, the Grosvenor Hospital, the General Lying-In Hospital and the Royal Waterloo Hospital. However, the Lambeth Hospital became part of the Group in 1964 when the Lambeth Group Hospital Management Committee merged with the Wandsworth Hospital Management Committee to form the South West London Group Hospital Management Committee. In addition, the South Western Hospital moved to the Saint Thomas' Group in 1968, and the Royal Eye Hospital joined in about 1973.
In 1974, the National Health Service was re-organized into Area Health Authorities, split into Districts, rather than Groups. The Saint Thomas' Hospital Group became the Saint Thomas' Health District (Teaching) of the Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham Area Health Authority, and now included Saint Thomas', Grosvenor, General Lying-In Hospital, Lambeth, Royal Waterloo and South Western Hospitals. These were joined in 1975 by Tooting Bec Hospital.
There was a further re-organization of the National Health Service in 1982, when the Saint Thomas' Health District (Teaching) became the West Lambeth Health Authority, now comprising Saint Thomas', General Lying-In, South Western and Tooting Bec Hospitals, with the addition of the Saint John's Hospital for Diseases of the Skin.
The final stage of reorganization occurred in 1993, when Saint Thomas' Hospital merged with Guy's Hospital to form the Guy's and Saint Thomas' Hospital Trust after the Tomlinson report of 1992 recommended that one of them be closed.
Saint Thomas' Home is the part of Saint Thomas' Hospital which provides for private paying patients. The principle of accepting paying patients was accepted by the Governors in November 1878 after much controversy, as it was thought to be an infringement of the charter of 1551 which had constituted the Hospital as a house of the poor. However, more income was needed if the poor were to be properly served and the Hospital to be made financially secure.
Two wards named 'Adelaide' and 'Alice' were opened as Saint Thomas' Home in March 1881. The charges were 8 shillings a day in a general ward and 12 shillings a day in a private room. The Home proved a success, especially with patients who did not have homes of their own at which they could be nursed - for example, clerks living in lodgings, visitors in London, or colonists returned to England for medical care.
On the completion of Gassiot House in 1906 the Home moved into the bottom two floors. It was closed to patients on the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, and the space was used to house members of the administrative and medical staff. It reopened in 1950 in Gassiot House, and in 1966 moved to Simon Ward in the East Wing of the new hospital buildings.
Saint Stephen's Hospital opened on the 20 February 1878 as Saint George's Union Infirmary, Chelsea. It stood next to and was associated with Saint George's Union Workhouse or the Little Chelsea Workhouse built in the 1850's. The foundation stone of the Infirmary was laid in 1876 and the cost of the building work was one hundred and ten thousand pounds and the architect was Mr E.T. Hall.
In 1878 when the Infirmary opened there was some discussion of the type of patient it was to treat. There was pressure to take lunatics, venereal cases and lying-in women. Eventually all these types of cases were taken. The infirmary was to serve the whole community, but most patients came from the area covered by the Union. In 1913 the Saint George's Union merged with the neighbouring Westminster and Strand Unions to form the City of Westminster Board of Guardians. All hospital cases within the new Union were concentrated on the newly named Fulham Road Infirmary. By 1918 a VD department had been established to meet the growing number of patients and 1920 saw the provision of the Infirmary's first operating theatre.
In 1924/5 the Infirmary was renamed Saint Stephen's Hospital. There was some controversy over the name change and what the Infirmary was to be called. The original proposal had been to change the name from 'The Fulham Road Infirmary' to 'The City of Westminster Hospital'. However Westminster Hospital felt this was liable to cause confusion due to the similarity of the names and took legal action to prevent the change. At first the Guardians of the City of Westminster Union rejected the opposition, but after a few weeks it was obvious that the similarities between the two names would cause confusion and difficulties. The Infirmary was then renamed Saint Stephen's in 1925. On 1 April 1930 the administration of the Hospital passed into the hands of the London County Council. Under the LondonCounty Council the area patients were drawn from was widened and it was realised that the hospital was under-equipped for its new role as a general hospital. There were no outpatient facilities, no x-ray department and no casualty department. In 1934 proposals were made to enlarge the x-ray and massage departments and build a new A&E department in the old reception site. The new department was completed in 1937.
The hospital sustained bomb damage in both 1940 and 1941, but despite extensive structural damage and the loss of life of both nursing staff and patients it remained open for the remainder of the Second World War. Some patients were evacuated to other hospitals from the most heavily damaged blocks. The old workhouse accommodation was underused during this period and was converted into accommodation for refugees fleeing the conditions in Europe.
In 1948 Saint Stephen's became part of the National Health Service under the South West Metropolitan Hospital Board. Saint Stephens was administered by the Chelsea Group Hospital Management Committee with Saint Luke's Hospital, the Cheyne Hospital for Children and Westminster Chest Clinic. The Princess Beatrice Hospital was added in 1950 and Saint Mary Abbots and the Westminster Hospital in 1960, when the Group was reformed as Chelsea and Kensington Hospital Management Committee.
New operating facilities were opened in 1950 by the Minister of Health, Iain McLeod, but the hospital was still in need of major capital investment. The 1960 saw a period of rebuilding undertaken. The hospital plan was approved in 1962 and in 1965 new outpatients and A&E departments were opened. 1972 saw the opening of a new ward block. The Hospital Management Committee rationalised acute care within the group, the Princess Beatrice and Saint Mary Abbots were scaled down and acute services were centred on Saint Stephen's.
With NHS reorganisation in 1974 Saint Stephen's became part of the south district of the Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster Area Health Authority and the North West Thames Regional Health Authority, with Saint Mary Abbots, the Princess Beatrice and Cheyne Centre and the Westminster Hospital. In 1982 the 90 area health authorities were replaced with 192 district health authorities. In west London the Victoria Heath Authority was created, which administered the Westminster, Westminster Children's, Saint Stephen's, Saint Mary Abbots, All Saints and the Gordon Hospitals. In April 1985, Riverside District Health Authority was created as part of the North West Thames Region. It merged Victoria Health Authority and Hammersmith and Fulham Health Authority. A district management team was responsible for Westminster, Westminster Children's, Saint Stephen's, West London Hospitals and two mental health hospitals, Horton and Banstead.
By the summer of 1987 the long-term strategy was to close Westminster Hospital, Saint Stephen's, Westminster Children's, Saint Mary Abbots and the West London Hospital. The plan was to demolish Saint Stephen's and build the new Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on the same site on Fulham Road. A two-year consultation process followed. In 1989 Saint Stephen's closed and patients and staff moved to Westminster Hospital while the Chelsea and Westminster was being built. In May 1993 the Westminster Hospital closed and moved into the new building at 369 Fulham Road, occupying the site of the old Saint Stephen's Hospital. Staff and services were brought together from five major hospitals: the Westminster, Westminster Children's, West London, Saint Mary Abbots and Saint Stephen's. In April 1994 Chelsea and Westminster Healthcare NHS Trust was established, and is based at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.
In 1715 the Westminster Hospital was founded to help the poor and needy. It opened as a Public Infirmary in 1719, situated first in Petty France, then Chapel Street and finally James Street. A hospital building was not opened until 1834. For a more detailed history of the Westminster Hospital please see H02/WH.
Saint Saviour's Grammar School, Southwark was founded in 1559 as a free grammar school. In 1896 it became Saint Olave's and Saint Saviour's Schools Foundation, which supports Saint Olave's Grammar School for boys and Saint Saviour's and Saint Olave's Church of England School for Girls.
Saint Pancras Petty Sessional Division: The parish of St Pancras (including most of Highgate) fell within the division of Holborn of Ossulston Hundred. Some time during the first quarter of the 19th century, St Pancras Justices of the Peace met together in unofficial sessions particularly for licensing purposes, separately from the full division. St Pancras became a fully autonomous petty sessional division by order of the Middlesex Sessions in 1853. On 1 July 1956 the St Pancras Division was incorporated into the New River Division.
An Act of 1792 established seven 'Public Offices' (later Police offices and Police courts) in the central Metropolitan area. The aim was to establish fixed locations where 'fit and able magistrates' would attend at fixed times to deal with an increasing number of criminal offences.
Offices were opened in St Margaret Westminster, St James Westminster, Clerkenwell, Shoreditch, Whitechapel, Shadwell and Southwark. An office in Bow Street, Covent Garden, originally the home of the local magistrate, had been operating for almost 50 years and was largely the model for the new offices.
In 1800 the Marine Police Office or Thames Police Office, opened by 'private enterprise' in 1798, was incorporated into the statutory system. In 1821 an office was opened in Marylebone, apparently replacing the one in Shadwell.
Each office was assigned three Justices of the Peace. They were to receive a salary of £400 per annum. These were the first stipendiary magistrates. Later they were expected to be highly qualified in the law, indeed, to be experienced barristers. This distinguished them from the local lay justices who after the setting up of Police Offices were largely confined, in the Metropolitan area, to the licensing of innkeepers. In addition each office could appoint up to six constables to be attached to it.
The commonly used term of 'Police Court' was found to be misleading. The word 'police' gave the impression that the Metropolitan Police controlled and administered the courts. This was never the case, the word 'police' was being used in its original meaning of 'pertaining to civil administration', 'regulating', etc.
In April 1965 (following the Administration of Justice Act 1964) the London Police Courts with their stipendiary magistrates were integrated with the lay magistrates to form the modern Inner London Magistrates' Courts.
The police courts dealt with a wide range of business coming under the general heading of 'summary jurisdiction', i.e. trial without a jury. The cases heard were largely criminal and of the less serious kind. Over the years statutes created many offences that the courts could deal with in addition to Common Law offences. Examples include: drunk and disorderly conduct, assault, theft, begging, possessing stolen goods, cruelty to animals, desertion from the armed forces, betting, soliciting, loitering with intent, obstructing highways, and motoring offences. Non-criminal matters included small debts concerning income tax and local rates, landlord and tenant matters, matrimonial problems and bastardy.
Offences beyond the powers of the Court would normally be passed to the Sessions of the Peace or Gaol Delivery Sessions in the Old Bailey (from 1835 called the Central Criminal Court). From the late 19th century such cases would be the subject of preliminary hearings or committal proceedings in the magistrates' courts.
Outside the London Police Court Area but within the administrative county of Middlesex lay justices continued to deal with both criminal offences and administrative matters such as the licensing of innkeepers.
The exact area covered by a Court at any particular time can be found in the Kelly's Post Office London Directories, available on microfilm at LMA. The entries are based on the original Orders-in-Council establishing police court districts. A map showing police court districts is kept in the Information Area of LMA with other reference maps. Please ask a member of staff for assistance.
The Saint Pancras Lime Company was based at Bagnigge Wells, St Pancras. Lime products were used in building.
Saint Pancras' Hospital originated in Saint Pancras' Workhouse, which was situated at no. 4 Kings Road, immediately to the north of Saint Pancras Old Church and Saint Pancras Churchyard (Kings Road was renamed Saint Pancras Way in 1937). In c 1884-1886 a separate infirmary block was built on a site adjoining the workhouse to the south-west, fronting on Cooks Terrace (renamed Pancras Road in 1872). This was known as Saint Pancras South Infirmary to distinguish it from Saint Pancras North Infirmary, built in the late 1860's, and situated on Highgate Hill. The North Infirmary was also known as Highgate Infirmary, later Highgate Hospital, and is now the Highgate Wing of the Whittington Hospital. The South Infirmary became Saint Pancras Hospital.
Saint Pancras' Hospital depended on the workhouse for the provision of certain essential services such as heating, hot water, laundry, and the use of the mortuary. The two institutions shared a common entrance on Kings Road and used the same receiving wards. By the 1920's the master of the workhouse or institution was also steward of the hospital. By 1936 the medical officer of the institution was also medical superintendent of the hospital. The institution could accommodate 1,344 while the hospital had beds for 378. The mental wards and, until 1929, the maternity wards and nursery were part of the institution. In 1929 the LCC Architect reported that the inmates of the institution were mostly of the 'infirm or partially able-bodied class' (see LCC/AR/CB/3/1).
When the London County Council took over responsibility for Saint Pancras' Institution and Hospital in 1930, they decided to adapt and partly rebuild Saint Pancras' Institution for use as a general hospital. By 1938, Saint Pancras' Institution had been renamed Saint Pancras' Hospital (II) while Saint Pancras' Hospital had become Saint Pancras' Hospital (I). By the outbreak of war, the LCC had completed a new mental observation unit and a new maternity block (never used for its intended purpose). On the establishment of the National Health Service in 1948, Saint Pancras Hospital (now run as one unit) was handed over to University College Hospital except for the new maternity block that housed the Hospital for Tropical Diseases. In 1990 Saint Pancras' Hospital was part of Bloomsbury Health Authority. Saint Pancras Hospital became the headquarters for the Camden and Islington Community Health Services NHS Trust in 2001 and specialises in care for the elderly and psychiatry.
The earlier records listed for Saint Olave's Hospital relate to Rotherhithe Workhouse which was situated on the site of the present Saint Olave's hospital. According to the Vestry minute book (held at Newington District Library) for Saint Mary's Rotherhithe the workhouse was in the course of erection in 1729. Rocque's map published in 1746 has an unmarked building in Deptford Lower Road (renamed Lower Road in 1888) and this same building is marked 'Workhouse' on Horwood's map of 1799. Rotherhithe workhouse was administered by Rotherhithe parish until 1836 and from 1836-1869 by Saint Mary Rotherhithe Board of Guardians. In 1869 it became part of Saint Olave's Union. There was a rearrangement of the workhouse accomodation of Saint Olave's Union in 1869-1870 and Rotherhithe Workhouse was appropriated for able-bodied males. In 1889 the Workhouse was described as 'dilapidated and disused' (Minutes of Saint Olave Board of Guardians, ref. BBG/56).
The majority of the records listed under Saint Olave's Hospital relate to Rotherhithe Infirmary, built in the early 1870's on ground adjoining Rotherhithe Workhouse on Deptford Lower Road. It became the Infirmary of Saint Olave's Union by Order of the Local Government Board on 31 August 1875. In the 1920s it was known as the Bermonsey and Rotherhithe Hospital. On 1 April 1930 the hospital was transferred from the Bermonsey Board of Guardians to the London County Council and renamed Saint Olave's Hospital. It was administered by the London County Council from 1930 until 5 July 1948 when the National Health Service came into being. From 1948 Saint Olave's was administered by the Bermondsey and Southwark Hospital Management Committee under the South East Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board, until 1966 when it became part of the Guy's Hospital Teaching Group. Following the National Health Service Reorganisation Act 1973 St Olave's was administered by the South East Thames Regional Health Authority. Saint Olave's Hospital started to be restricted in 1970 and finally closed in 1984. All that now remains is Saint Olave's House, a nursing home which is part of the South London Family Housing Association Group.
The earlier records in this list relate to the Woolwich Union Infirmary, this was the infirmary for the Woolwich Union workhouse. On 2nd April 1870, the foundation stone for the new Woolwich Union workhouse was laid by the Revd Francis Cameron. It bore the inscription "The poor ye have always with you". The workhouse was situated at Tewson Road, between Skittles Alley (now Riverdale road) and Cage Lane (now Lakedale Road) at the south side of Plumstead High Street, and was designed by the firm of Church and Rickwood. In 1872, a separate infirmary was erected to the south of the workhouse. The new buildings consisted of three ward blocks with central staff quarters, kitchens, stores, offices and committee rooms. The wards included accommodation for children and maternity patients, and a special sick bay for vagrants from the casual ward at Hull Place at the north of the workhouse.
In the 1920s, the workhouse became known as the Woolwich Institution, and the infirmary as the Plumstead and District Hospital. In 1930, following the formal end of the workhouse system, control of the site passed to the London County Council. It was then renamed Saint Nicholas' Hospital and, at that time, had 320 beds. In World War Two, the whole of the northern block was destroyed by in a single bomb attack. In 1945, the hospital suffered further damage from a flying bomb.
After the creation of the National Health Service in 1948, the Hospital was administered by the Woolwich Group Hospital Management Committee. There were 350 beds including 23 beds for maternity cases from the British Hospital for Mothers and Babies. A new Casualty Department was opened in 1965.
In 1974 the Health Service was reorganised and the Hospital came under the control of the Greenwich and Bexley Area Health Authority (later Greenwich Health Authority). In 1986 the Hospital was closed as part of a NHS rationalisation scheme, and the site has been completely redeveloped.
Poor relief was based on the Act for the Relief of the Poor of 1601 which obliged parishes to take care of the aged and needy in their area. Parish overseers were empowered to collect a local income tax known as the poor-rate which would be put towards the relief of the poor. This evolved into the rating system, where the amount of poor-rate charged was based on the value of a person's property. Early workhouses were constructed and managed by the parish. However, this process was expensive and various schemes were devised where groups of parishes could act together and pool their resources. As early as 1647 towns were setting up 'Corporations' of parishes. An Act of 1782, promoted by Thomas Gilbert, allowed adjacent parishes to combine into Unions and provide workhouses. These were known as 'Gilbert's Unions' and were managed by a board of Guardians.
Under the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, the Poor Law Commission was given the power to unite parishes in England and Wales into Poor Law Unions. Each Union was to be administered by a local Board of Guardians. Relief was to be provided through the provision of a workhouse. An amendment to the 1834 Act allowed already existing 'Gilbert's Unions' or Corporations of parishes to remain in existence, although they were encouraged to convert themselves into Poor Law Unions. Although there was some reorganisation of union boundaries, particularly in London, the majority of Unions created under the 1834 Act remained in operation until 1930. In March 1930 a new Local Government Bill abolished the Poor Law Unions and the Board of Guardians. Responsibility for their institutions passed to Public Assistance Committees managed by the county councils - in the metropolis either the London County Council or the Middlesex County Council.
A workhouse was constructed in Saint Marylebone in 1730, while Directors and Guardians of the poor were first constituted in 1775. In 1867 the Metropolitan Poor Act enabled the Poor Law Board to bring all independent 'local act' parishes within the scope of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act. Therefore the Directors and Guardians of the Poor of the parish of Saint Marylebone were abolished and were replaced by an elected Board of Guardians. The new Guardians continued to develop the existing workhouse site at Northumberland Road, adding new wards and facilities. During these renovations some of the inmates were held at the disused Holborn Union workhouse on Grays Inn Road. Casual wards for vagrants were also opened on Grays Inn Road.
In 1879 construction began on a new infirmary at Rackham Street, Ladbroke Grove, which created more space for the able bodied in the main workhouse. The Guardians also constructed and managed an industrial school in Southall.
Source of information: Peter Higginbotham at The Workhouse website.
Saint Mary, Newington Church of England School originated as a charity school for boys, founded in 1710. Girls were admitted from 1785. It became part of the United Parochial, National, Charity and Sunday Schools, Saint Mary, Newington, in 1816, with the addition of an infants' school in 1851. Branch schools were opened in the districts of Saint Peter in 1839 and Trinity in 1841, and managed by the general committee for Saint Mary's Schools until the creation of separate district managements in 1846.
The day schools' main income from endowments, subscriptions, donations and children's 'school-pence' was augmented by various grants from central government during the nineteenth century. When a fee grant was introduced under the Elementary Education Act 1891, the infants' school was made free. The school fees were abolished entirely in 1894.
In 1904, as a result of the Education Act of 1902 and the Education (London) Act of 1903, maintenance of the day schools was taken over by the London County Council (LCC), and management passed from the old committee of managers to a new body consisting of foundation managers and a representative of the metropolitan borough of Southwark. The schools continued as non-provided elementary day schools maintained by the Council.
In 1932, the boys', girls' and infants' schools were reorganised into infants' and senior mixed departments, juniors being accommodated in Newington Junior School, a temporary LCC elementary day school which was opened in that year in the adjacent Pastors' College. By 1947 Saint Mary's was both a primary and a secondary school. Aided status was awarded in 1951.
In 1953, the infants' department was closed and the school became purely a secondary modern. It was discontinued altogether in 1963 in the course of the reorganisation of voluntary schools in the area.
This investment company, formerly Edward Hain and Son, ship managers, was part of the Inchcape Group of companies.
The oldest part of Kensington Workhouse, later known as Stone Hall, was built in 1847. A separate infirmary was built on the same site in 1871. Until 1875 the main dining hall behind the workhouse was used for chapel services. A legacy of two thousand five hundred pounds from Eliza France, wife of one of the Kensington Guardians, then made it possible to build a chapel to serve both the workhouse and the infirmary. The chapel was designed by A.W. Blomfield in the Early English style and was dedicated to Saint Elizabeth of Hungary. The chapel was demolished in 1974 and was replaced by a modern chapel dedicated by the Bishop of Kensington in an ecumenical service on 8 June 1977.
Kensington Infirmary and Kensington Workhouse were administered by the Kensington Board of Guardians until 1930. Kensington Workhouse became known as Kensington Institution in 1912 and Kensington Infirmary became Saint Mary Abbot's Hospital in 1923. In 1930 when the London County Council took over the two hospitals, Saint Mary Abbot's Hospital was designated a type A hospital for the acute sick, and Kensington Institution became a type B hospital for the chronic sick. In 1931 on the retirement of the Master of Kensington Institution, the hospital was placed under the charge of a Medical Superintendent as a first stage in integrating the two hospitals. This was carried a step further in 1933 when the Institution was renamed Saint Mary Abbot's Hospital (Institution).
From 1938 Saint Mary Abbot's Hospital became Saint Mary Abbot's Hospital (I) and Saint Mary Abbot's Hospital (Institution) became Saint Mary Abbot's Hospital (II), until 17 June 1944 when Hospital (II) was closed due to enemy action. The two hospitals were eventually united formally in 1948 when they were taken in to the National Health Service.
In 1948 Saint Mary Abbot's Hospital was assigned to the Fulham and Kensington Hospital Management Committee of the South West Metropolitan Region. On 1 October 1960 the Fulham and Kensington Hospital Management Committee was amalgamated with the Chelsea Hospital Management Committee to form the Chelsea and Kensington Hospital Management Committee which administered the hospital until 1974. At that date it became part of the Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster Area Health Authority, within the North West Thames Regional Health Authority. In 1982 the hospital became part of the Victoria Health Authority, and in 1986 it is part of the Riverside Health Authority.
From 1948 to 1955 the hospital was a general hospital with approximately 400 beds. From 1955 to 1972 it was designated an acute hospital. From 1972 to 1984 it specialised in Ear, Nose and Throat cases, geriatrics and psychiatrics, with geriatric and psychiatric day hospitals from 1978. During this period the number of beds at the hospital was 230 approximately. From 1984 the hospital has been designated a long-stay hospital. The hospital closed in 1992 on the opening of the new Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on the site of Saint Stephen's Hospital, Fulham Road.
On 13 June 1750 a meeting to consider the establishment of a hospital for the care and treatment of the poor suffering from mental illnesses took place at the King's Arms, Exchange Alley, City of London between Thomas Crowe, physician, Richard Speed, druggist, James Sperling, merchant, William Prowing, apothecary, Thomas Light, merchant and Francis Magnus. At this time, provision for treatment of individuals from poor families in London was made at the Bethlem Hospital, but waiting lists were long and alternatives were private 'mad houses' which were beyond the means of most people.
From the beginning, the founders of Saint Luke's Hospital intended to cure 'lunacy', as well as to make treatment accessible to poorer people. Two apothecaries were found to prepare and supply all drugs required free of charge, and after 4 months over £1000 had been pledged and a committee formed to establish the hospital. Appeals for funds gave people opportunity to be come Governor of the hospital for life if they gave £20. At Bethlem, the public were allowed to come and look at the 'lunatics' on public holidays, as a form of leisure. One of the first rules of the new hospital was 'that patients in this hospital be not exposed to publick view'.
The first site of the hospital, called Saint Luke's Hospital for Lunatics, was the old Moorfields Foundry leased by the City of London. George Dance, City Surveyor advised on the conversion of the building and gave his services free. The hospital was named Saint Luke's due to its proximity to Saint Luke's, Old Street. In July 1751, the first patients were admitted. During the 1750s, there were 50 'curable' and 20 'incurable' patients with staff consisting of the Keeper and his wife, with 2 male and 2 female attendants.
The hospital's funds were substantially increased with a major bequest of £30,000 by Sir Thomas Clarke, Master of the Rolls. This allowed a move in 1786 from the Foundry to a 3 acre site on Old Street leased from Saint Bartholomew's Hospital. The number of patients increased to 80 'curable' patients and 30 'incurable' patients. In 1832 an infirmary was added to the hospital. From 1833, occupational therapy for patients was introduced.
In 1841 the hospital came under the authority of the London Commissioners in Lunacy. The Commissioners considered the Old Street site to be unsuitable for reception of patients due to its central location in London. The Governors argued that the capital's population required provision of treatment of individuals with mental health conditions and did not have financial reserves to leave the site or receive financial benefit from terms of the existing lease. To increase funds, following successive building alterations and improvements, it was decided in 1858 to admit 'incurable' patients on a paying basis.
In 1882 the Keeper and Matron (wife of Keeper) system of administration was abolished, and qualified nurses were admitted. Further training was supplied by the Medical Superintendent. In 1904 nursing uniforms were introduced.
From 1871 the Governors began examining options for acquiring a second site for the use of convalescent patients. In 1893 Nether Court, Saint Lawrence-on-Sea, Ramsgate, Kent and 12 acres of grounds was rented for the benefit of female patients and later bought in 1901. In 1910, Welders House and Estate near Jordans, Buckinghamshire consisting of 135 acres was purchased for the establishment of a large convalescent home but was never brought to completion.
By end of 19th century, state-run County Asylums were well established for the reception of patients with families with limited means.The proportion of patients from the middle classes therefore increased.
The Old Street site was finally sold to the Bank of England in 1916, following lengthy negotiations with Saint Bartholomew's. By the end of 1916, most patients has been discharged back to their families or to other hospitals.
In 1922 an out-patients department was begun at the Middlesex Hospital to provide beds for patients. In 1930 Woodside Nerve Hospital was opened at Woodside Avenue, Muswell Hill, and the hospital purchased the 3 buildings in the road. In 1938 28 Grand Avenue was taken into use as a nurse's home and arrangements for resident patients at the Middlesex was terminated.
In the 1935 the hospital treated the following range of cases (source: summary statistics contained in H64/B/08/01/001):
- 'Organic nervous and mental disorders': Alcoholism, cardiovascular (involving the heart and blood vessels), Meniere's Syndrome (inner ear condition causing dizziness), drugs, cephalalgia (head aches) and 'senile changes'
- 'Functional syndromes': Anxiety states, confusional states, depression, elation, hysteria, neurasthenia (nervous breakdown), obsessional states, paranoid, schizophrenic (psychotic behaviour). Anxiety, depression and hysteria being the most prevalent cases.
From 1939 on the onset of the Second World War, the Ministry of Health took over the hospital for the sole treatment of Ministry of Service (E.M.S.) servicemen and women patients suffering shell shock from active service. By 1945, 1705 Service patients had been treated at Woodside.
In 1948, upon the foundation of The National Health Service (NHS), Saint Luke's - Woodside Hospital became the psychological department of the Middlesex Hospital with a teaching as well as treatment role. The hospital came under the following administrative authorities:
Middlesex Hospital Management Committee (from 1948-1974) then North East Thames Regional Health Authority (1974-1982), then Bloomsbury District Health Authority (from 1982). In 1993 the hospital joined the newly formed Camden and Islington Community Health Services NHS Trust and in turn was managed from April 2002 by Camden and Islington Mental Health NHS Trust.
On 13 June 1750 a meeting to consider the establishment of a hospital for the care and treatment of the poor suffering from mental illnesses took place at the King's Arms, Exchange Alley, City of London between Thomas Crowe, physician, Richard Speed, druggist, James Sperling, merchant, William Prowing, apothecary, Thomas Light, merchant and Francis Magnus. At this time, provision for treatment of individuals from poor families in London was made at the Bethlem Hospital, but waiting lists were long and alternatives were private 'mad houses' which were beyond the means of most people.
From the beginning, the founders of Saint Luke's Hospital intended to cure 'lunacy', as well as to make treatment accessible to poorer people. Two apothecaries were found to prepare and supply all drugs required free of charge, and after 4 months over £1000 had been pledged and a committee formed to establish the hospital. Appeals for funds gave people opportunity to be come Governor of the hospital for life if they gave £20. At Bethlem, the public were allowed to come and look at the 'lunatics' on public holidays, as a form of leisure. One of the first rules of the new hospital was 'that patients in this hospital be not exposed to publick view'.
The first site of the hospital, called Saint Luke's Hospital for Lunatics, was the old Moorfields Foundry leased by the City of London. George Dance, City Surveyor advised on the conversion of the building and gave his services free. The hospital was named Saint Luke's due to its proximity to Saint Luke's, Old Street. In July 1751, the first patients were admitted. During the 1750s, there were 50 'curable' and 20 'incurable' patients with staff consisting of the Keeper and his wife, with 2 male and 2 female attendants.
The hospital's funds were substantially increased with a major bequest of £30,000 by Sir Thomas Clarke, Master of the Rolls. This allowed a move in 1786 from the Foundry to a 3 acre site on Old Street leased from Saint Bartholomew's Hospital. The number of patients increased to 80 'curable' patients and 30 'incurable' patients. In 1832 an infirmary was added to the hospital. From 1833, occupational therapy for patients was introduced.
In 1841 the hospital came under the authority of the London Commissioners in Lunacy. The Commissioners considered the Old Street site to be unsuitable for reception of patients due to its central location in London. The Governors argued that the capital's population required provision of treatment of individuals with mental health conditions and did not have financial reserves to leave the site or receive financial benefit from terms of the existing lease. To increase funds, following successive building alterations and improvements, it was decided in 1858 to admit 'incurable' patients on a paying basis.
In 1882 the Keeper and Matron (wife of Keeper) system of administration was abolished, and qualified nurses were admitted. Further training was supplied by the Medical Superintendent. In 1904 nursing uniforms were introduced.
From 1871 the Governors began examining options for acquiring a second site for the use of convalescent patients. In 1893 Nether Court, Saint Lawrence-on-Sea, Ramsgate, Kent and 12 acres of grounds was rented for the benefit of female patients and later bought in 1901. In 1910, Welders House and Estate near Jordans, Buckinghamshire consisting of 135 acres was purchased for the establishment of a large convalescent home but was never brought to completion.
By end of 19th century, state-run County Asylums were well established for the reception of patients with families with limited means.The proportion of patients from the middle classes therefore increased.
The Old Street site was finally sold to the Bank of England in 1916, following lengthy negotiations with Saint Bartholomew's. By the end of 1916, most patients has been discharged back to their families or to other hospitals.
In 1922 an out-patients department was begun at the Middlesex Hospital to provide beds for patients. In 1930 Woodside Nerve Hospital was opened at Woodside Avenue, Muswell Hill, and the hospital purchased the 3 buildings in the road. In 1938 28 Grand Avenue was taken into use as a nurse's home and arrangements for resident patients at the Middlesex was terminated.
In the 1935 the hospital treated the following range of cases (source: summary statistics contained in H64/B/08/01/001):
-
'Organic nervous and mental disorders': Alcoholism, cardiovascular (involving the heart and blood vessels), Meniere's Syndrome (inner ear condition causing dizziness), drugs, cephalalgia (head aches) and 'senile changes'
-
'Functional syndromes': Anxiety states, confusional states, depression, elation, hysteria, neurasthenia (nervous breakdown), obsessional states, paranoid, schizophrenic (psychotic behaviour).
Anxiety, depression and hysteria being the most prevalent cases.
From 1939 on the onset of the Second World War, the Ministry of Health took over the hospital for the sole treatment of Ministry of Service (E.M.S.) servicemen and women patients suffering shell shock from active service. By 1945, 1705 Service patients had been treated at Woodside.
In 1948, upon the foundation of The National Health Service (NHS), Saint Luke's - Woodside Hospital became the psychological department of the Middlesex Hospital with a teaching as well as treatment role. The hospital came under the following administrative authorities:
Middlesex Hospital Management Committee (from 1948-1974) then North East Thames Regional Health Authority (1974-1982), then Bloomsbury District Health Authority (from 1982). In 1993 the hospital joined the newly formed Camden and Islington Community Health Services NHS Trust and in turn was managed from April 2002 by Camden and Islington Mental Health NHS Trust.
A workhouse for St Luke's Parish, Chelsea, was first constructed in 1737. An infirmary was added in 1872. In 1930 the workhouse was taken over by the London County Council, while in 1948 it became part of the new National Health Service (NHS) as Saint Luke's Hospital, Chelsea. It was managed by the South West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board and the Chelsea and Kensington Hospital Management Committee. Saint Luke's was closed in 1974.
Source of information: Peter Higginbotham at The Workhouse website.
Poor relief was based on the Act for the Relief of the Poor of 1601 which obliged parishes to take care of the aged and needy in their area. Parish overseers were empowered to collect a local income tax known as the poor-rate which would be put towards the relief of the poor. This evolved into the rating system, where the amount of poor-rate charged was based on the value of a person's property. Early workhouses were constructed and managed by the parish. However, this process was expensive and various schemes were devised where groups of parishes could act together and pool their resources. As early as 1647 towns were setting up 'Corporations' of parishes. An Act of 1782, promoted by Thomas Gilbert, allowed adjacent parishes to combine into Unions and provide workhouses. These were known as 'Gilbert's Unions' and were managed by a board of Guardians.
Under the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, the Poor Law Commission was given the power to unite parishes in England and Wales into Poor Law Unions. Each Union was to be administered by a local Board of Guardians. Relief was to be provided through the provision of a workhouse. An amendment to the 1834 Act allowed already existing 'Gilbert's Unions' or Corporations of parishes to remain in existence, although they were encouraged to convert themselves into Poor Law Unions. Although there was some reorganisation of union boundaries, particularly in London, the majority of Unions created under the 1834 Act remained in operation until 1930. In March 1930 a new Local Government Bill abolished the Poor Law Unions and the Board of Guardians. Responsibility for their institutions passed to Public Assistance Committees managed by the county councils - in the metropolis either the London County Council or the Middlesex County Council.
Between 1837 and 1841 Chelsea parishes belonged to the Kensington Poor Law Union. In 1841 a separate Board of Guardians was constituted for the parish of Saint Luke's, Chelsea. In 1843 a workhouse was constructed on Britten Street, which was further extended in 1860 and again in 1902.
Source of information: Peter Higginbotham at The Workhouse website.
Early Commissioners of Sewers were solely concerned with land drainage and the prevention of flooding, not with the removal of sewage in the modern sense. In 1531 an Act of Sewers was passed which set out in great detail the duties and powers of Commissioners and governed their work until the 19th century. Gradually a permanent pattern emerged in the London area of seven commissions, five north and two south of the Thames, with, after the Great Fire, a separate commission for the City of London. The London commissioners had more extensive powers than those in other parts of the country; they had control over all watercourses and ditches within two miles of the City of London as well as newly constructed drains and sewers. After 1800 the London commissioners also obtained powers to control the formation of new sewers and house drains.
'The precinct of St. Katherines nigh the Tower of London' as it is described in the earliest Commission which has been found (1646), is the smallest area to have a separate Commission of Sewers in the neighbourhood of London.
This synagogue was admitted as a Constituent member of the United Synagogue in 1876. It was situated at the corner of Abbey Road and Marlborough Place. This structure proved too small and in 1882 a new building was begun on Abbey Road. In 1965 the synagogue moved to Grove End Road.
Saint John's School may have been opened by the The British and Foreign Schools Society which founded several schools in the Bethnal Green area from 1819 onwards. These were usually attached to district churches.
Saint John's House was founded in 1848 as a "Training Institution for Nurses for Hospitals, Families and the Poor". It was an Anglican religious community run by a Chaplain and Lady Superior, although the sisters and nurses took no vows. The records from 1848 to 1919 have been listed separately and this list should be consulted for the early history of the Institution.
In May 1920 the house at 12 Queen Square, Bloomsbury, was given to Saint Thomas' Hospital and two sisters from the Hospital took charge in April 1919. The institution was renamed Saint John's and Saint Thomas' House and was used as a centre for private nursing, the staff being composed of the remaining Saint John's House nurses, and those nurses who had been trained at Saint Thomas' Hospital and who wished to take up private nursing under the direction of the Hospital. Payments were made according to the fees earned with deduction for the expenses of the house.
The house was closed during the Second World War and the building was damaged by bombing. After the war, no residence was maintained for the private nurses but the organisation was continued from the Matron's Office at St Thomas' Hospital. The last remaining Saint John's and Saint Thomas' House nurses resigned in April, 1964.
The building itself was reopened in 1947 as a Night Nurses' Home and continued in that role until January 1967, when it was closed due to staffing difficulties.
Saint John's House was founded in 1848 as a 'Training Institution for Nurses for Hospitals, Families and the Poor'. It was a religious community run by a Master, who was a clergyman, and a Lady Superintendent. The aim was to improve the qualifications and raise the character of nurses by providing moral and religious instruction. There were three classes of members:-
1) Probationers, who were to have two years training in hospitals before becoming Nurses.
2) Nurses, who were to nurse the sick either in hospitals or private homes, and who received wages. Certificates of competency were issued to Nurses after a period of five years.
3) Sisters, who were to instruct the Probationers and undertake the nursing in private houses. None of the members took any religious vows.
The Institution opened at 36 Fitzroy Street, St Pancras, and was named Saint John's House because it was in the parish of Saint John the Evangelist. In 1852 it moved to 5 Queen Square, Westminster, and in 1859 to 6-8 Norfolk Street, Strand. It remained in these premises until 1907 when a new house was built at 12 Queen Square, Bloomsbury. The chapel from Norfolk Street was re-erected in this building.
In 1854 six nurses from the Institution went out to the Crimea with Florence Nightingale, since Saint John's House was at that time one of the few sources for trained nurses. In 1856 the sisters took over the nursing of King's College Hospital and from 1862 to 1868 a six-month training in midwifery nursing was given there, with the help of a grant from the newly founded Nightingale Fund Council. The 1860s saw a further expansion of work. In 1865 the nursing of the Galigani Hospital, Paris, was undertaken, and in 1866 Charing Cross Hospital. In 1877 a Saint John's House Maternity Home was opened at Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, later moving to Queen Anne Terrace, Battersea in 1883.
Difficulties arose, however, from an early date over the organisation of the house, and there was considerable dissension between the Master and Lady Superintendent. Although the rules were changed in 1865, the Master being renamed the Chaplain, and the Lady Superintendent renamed Lady Superior, there was no basic change in organisation. The crisis came in 1867 when the lady Superintendent and six sisters resigned on the rejection of their nominee for Chaplain. The arrangements of the nursing at King's College Hospital also provoked considerable conflict. A bitter disagreement in 1874 was patched up but there was further trouble in 1883. This time, the quarrel between the Sister-Matron and the Medical Staff led to the resignation of all the Sisters and most of the nurses of Saint John's House. They remained together, however, and founded the Community of Nursing Sisters of Saint John the Divine, which continues to work today in Hastings and Poplar. The Council of Saint John's House recruited new staff and the nursing service for King's College and Charing Cross Hospitals was maintained.
In 1886 the Community of All Saints took over the entire management of Saint John's House, until 1892 when the Community of Saint Peter's, Kilburn, took over. There were increasing difficulties of recruitment, however, and as hospitals began to undertake the organisation and training of their own nursing staff, Saint John's House withdrew from many of its commitments. In 1911 the superintendence of the House was taken by the Community of Saint Margaret's, East Grinstead. Finally the Institution was given to Saint Thomas' Hospital and was renamed Saint John's and Saint Thomas' House. Two Sisters from the Hospital took charge in April 1919 although the agreement was not completed until May 1920. The house was used as a centre for nurses who had been trained at Saint Thomas' Hospital and who wished to take up private nursing. Many of the Saint John's House nurses stayed on under this arrangement.
Saint John's Hospital was founded in 1863 by John Laws Milton at 12 Church Street, Soho (now Romilly Street). Two years later it moved to 45 Leicester Square. The justification for founding Saint John's, the second special hospital for diseases of the skin in London was 'on the grounds that general hospitals had refused to institute special departments for the treatment and teaching of skin disease'. The School of Dermatology was established at the hospital by 1885. The first fifty years of the hospital's existence were marked by internal conflict, financial difficulties and public controversy culminating in the libel action brought by the Hospital Secretary, Saint Vincent Mercier, against the editor of Truth in 1889. For further information see the files of the Charity Organisation Society Enquiry Department (ref. A/FWA/C/D17/1-5).
In 1883 the hospital opened a separate inpatients department at Markham Square, Kings Road, Chelsea. This closed in 1886 and both in-patients and out-patients moved to 49 Leicester Square in 1887. A new in-patients department was opened in 1895 at Arlington House, 262 Uxbridge Road, Hammersmith. The outpatients department was rebuilt in 1905 at 49 Leicester Square and then moved in 1935 to its present premises at 5 Lisle Street, Leicester Square.
Saint John's Hospital benefited from the founding in 1923 of the London School of Dermatology based at the hospital. This was taken over by the Institute of Dermatology in 1946. Saint John's Hospital became part of the National Health Service in 1948 and was designated as one of the fourteen post graduate teaching hospitals.
The in-patient department of the hospital at Uxbridge Road had been forced to close after being severely damaged by bombing in September 1940. In 1952 the disused part of the Eastern Fever Hospital at Homerton was made available to Saint John's for the admission of in-patients. Additional wards and laboratories were opened at Homerton between 1953 and 1961. In 1982 Saint John's Hospital became part of the West Lambeth Health Authority. The in-patient department and Institute of Dermatology moved from Homerton to Saint Thomas' Hospital and the Lambeth Hospital site by February 1987. The outpatient department moved from Lisle Street to Saint Thomas' Hospital in 1989.
Saint John's Hospital was founded in 1879 by Miss Elizabeth Twining of Dial House, Twickenham. She purchased Amyand House in Twickenham, which she gave to trustees together with money for alterations and additions and an endowment of three thousand pounds. The Provident and Outpatient Department of the Hospital opened in 1879. Two wards to accommodate a total of twelve inpatients were completed in 1880, when the hospital was officially opened by the Duchess of Teck. The hospital was intended to benefit local residents who could not afford to pay for medical attendance at the ordinary rates, but were able and willing to pay periodical subscriptions to the institution. Any one in receipt of parish relief or in a position to pay for medical attendance at the ordinary rate was excluded.
The early years of the hospital were dominated by financial crises leading to the dismissal of the Medical Superintendent, Dr Benthall, and his consequent legal battles with the committee for reinstatement or compensation. The hospital was closed for over two years while legal actions were in progress. It reopened in 1885 under a Charity Commission Scheme without a resident medical superintendent. Medical treatment was provided by local general practitioners.
To enable the hospital to care for the needs of the rapidly rising population of Twickenham and the growing number of road accident cases, a "scheme of extensions of buildings and equipment" commenced in 1932. The two wards were enlarged to increase the number of beds, an X-ray Department was completed and opened between 1933 and 1935, and the adjoining property, Newlands House, was purchased in 1935. This was initially used as accommodation for nurses and the hospital secretary's office, but the ultimate intention was to build an extension on its site. The most urgent requirements were for an enlarged Outpatients Department and a new children's ward to replace the original children's ward which had been taken over for massage and electrical treatment. These plans were still unrealised on the outbreak of war in 1939.
In 1948 Saint John's Hospital (by then a 32-bed hospital) became part of the National Health Service as one of the South West Middlesex Group of Hospitals of the North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board. Two visitors from King Edward's Hospital Fund for London were unfavourably impressed by the hospital in October 1954. "This rather sad little general practitioner hospital built 50 years ago is about to be renovated by the Group. It has two wards of 16 beds each, and is forced to maintain 10 chronic sick patients. Originally the Regional Board proposed to make it a solely chronic hospital but local opposition prevented this." Three years later the King's Fund visitors reported little improvement. "The whole impression of this hospital was rather depressing. We doubt very much whether it is worth while spending money on this unsuitable building which appears to have outlived its purpose."
In 1974 Saint John's Hospital became the responsibility of Ealing, Hammersmith and Hounslow Area Health Authority (Teaching). In 1982 it passed to Hounslow and Spelthorne Health Authority. The hospital closed in 1985.
Members of the Grand Priory of the Hospital Order of St John of Jerusalem in England saw a need to find a way to assist accident victims quickly since untreated injuries often led to death or disability. They decided to train ordinary people in first aid so accident victims could be treated quickly and on the spot and, in 1887, they set up St John Ambulance to do this. Classes were set up across the country, particularly in workplaces and areas of heavy industry but also in villages, seaside towns and middle class suburbs.
In 1887, trained volunteers were organised into a uniformed Brigade to provide a first aid and ambulance service at public events. In many parts of Britain, St John was the first and only provider of an ambulance service right up to the middle of the 20th century, when the National Health Service was founded. When there were far fewer doctors and hospital beds than today, St John nurses looked after the sick and injured in their own homes.
There were originally three charitable Foundations of the modern Order. One, which became The St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital Foundation, was established in 1882. The St John Ambulance Association, which was concerned with training the public in first aid, was established in 1877. The third was The St John Ambulance Brigade, which provided first aid care to the public. It had its origins in 1873 and became a Foundation in 1887. The St John Ambulance Association and The St John Ambulance Brigade were amalgamated in 1974 to form the present St John Ambulance Foundation.
St John Ambulance was originally divided into two fields, teaching first aid to workplace employees via the St. John Ambulance Association and providing uniformed medical volunteers to cover public and private events via the St. John Ambulance Brigade. However, these two entities merged in 1968 to form a single unified St. John Ambulance, providing both training and first-aid cover.
For further details please see the website www.sja.org.uk
Saint John the Divine Spiritual Baptist Church, Deptford closed in 1991. The Spiritual Baptist Church has Caribbean origins, and is particularly prevalent in Trinidad. Members are sometimes referred to as 'Shouters' because they shout, clap and dance during services, however, this term is now considered derogatory as it was used by the British Colonial government which outlawed Church meetings until 1951.
For a detailed administrative history please see the separate entries for the individual institutions that make up this group of hospitals.
Saint James' Infirmary was established on Sarsfield Road, Balham in 1909, it was associated with the workhouse on an adjoining site and was administered by Wandsworth Board of Guardians. In 1922 the Infirmary was renamed Saint James Hospital and moved to Ouseley Road, Balham. In 1930 the management of the hospital was passed to the London County Council. In the 1948 the hospital became part of the National Health Service. In was within the administration of the South West Regional Hospital Board and Wandsworth Hospital Management Committee. After NHS reorganisation in 1974 the hospital became part of the South West Thames Regional Health Authority and Wandsworth and East Merton District Health Authority. The hospital closed in the late 1980's and its services were transferred to Saint George's Hospital, Tooting.