The Police Convalescent Home or Police Convalescent Seaside Home was an institution in

Hove Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th cen ...

, East Sussex housing police officers during their

convalescence Convalescence is the gradual recovery of health and strength after illness or injury. It refers to the later stage of an infectious disease or illness when the patient recovers and returns to previous health, but may continue to be a source of ...

from illness or injury. These officers were principally from south-east English forces such as the

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

and

City of London Police The City of London Police is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement within the City of London, including the Middle and Inner Temples. The force responsible for law enforcement within the remainder of the London region, ou ...

and frequently suffered from lung diseases, for which sea air was held to be beneficial. It opened in March 1890 at 51 Clarendon Villas, which for a time also housed the Southern Counties Police Orphanage A site was soon found at 11 Portland Road for a purpose-built redbrick replacement building with an infirmary and surgery. The Home was largely funded by the Metropolitan and City Police Convalescent Home Fund, some of whose records between 1902 and 1917 are held in the National Archives as MEPO 2/1723 The new building was designed by local architect John George Gibbens, with the foundation stone laid on 29 October 1892 by

Princess Christian Princess Helena (Helena Augusta Victoria; 25 May 1846 – 9 June 1923), later Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, was the third daughter and fifth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Helena was educated by private tutors chosen ...

and opened by the wife of the 4th Earl of Chichester on 21 July the following year. The building was turned into an auxiliary hospital in 1895 during a flu epidemic and into an Auxiliary Military Hospital from 1914 to 1919. It then returned to its original use until 1966, when it moved to a site at 205 Kingsway, though the building at 11 Portland Road is now a privately owned nursing home. The Home was finally renamed the Police Rehabilitation Centre and moved from Kingsway, Hove to Flint House, Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire in 1988

References

{{B&H Buildings Hospitals in East Sussex 1890 establishments in England History of the Metropolitan Police History of the City of London Police Buildings and structures in Brighton and Hove History of law enforcement in the United Kingdom Defunct hospitals in England Rehabilitation medicine organisations based in the United Kingdom Charities based in East Sussex