Brownlow Hill infirmary was a large
workhouse
In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse'' ...
infirmary in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
, notable for its role in advancing training of
nurses. The workhouse was demolished in 1931, and the site is now occupied by
Liverpool's Catholic cathedral.
History
Initial construction of the workhouse was completed in May 1772.
It was extended by addition of six further houses to both the southeast and southwest wings in 1777, a public
dispensary
A dispensary is an office in a school, hospital, industrial plant, or other organization that dispenses medications, medical supplies, and in some cases even medical and dental treatment. In a traditional dispensary set-up, a pharmacist dispen ...
(completed in 1780), four houses to form a hospital for casual paupers (1786), a lunatic asylum (1787), and a fever ward (1801).
By the 1790s, the workhouse accommodated over 1000 people, and further extensions were added in 1792 and 1796.
A report in 1805 by churchwarden Henderson revealed that of 1600 paupers housed in the workhouse and nearby
almshouse
An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) was charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the medieval era. They were often targeted at the poor of a locality, at those from certain ...
s, only 20 were able-bodied men, with 437 unable to work due to sickness or infirmity.
The workhouse was expanded (effectively rebuilt) in the 1840s (to designs by architects
Henry Lockwood and
Thomas Allom
Thomas Allom (13 March 1804 – 21 October 1872) was an English architect, artist, and topographical illustrator. He was a founding member of what became the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). He designed many buildings in London, in ...
),
with a chapel erected in 1855 and a hospital 'for the reception of poor persons suffering from infectious diseases' added in 1863.
At its peak it was one of the largest workhouses in the UK with an official capacity of over 3000 inmates but sometimes holding as many as 5000.
Nurse training
The workhouse also housed one of the largest infirmaries in the country. It catered for 1200 sick paupers. Liverpool philanthropist
William Rathbone obtained permission from the Liverpool Vestry to introduce trained nurses (at his own expense for three years) at the workhouse hospital in 1864, and invited
Agnes Jones, then at the
London Great Northern Hospital, to be the first trained Nursing Superintendent in 1865.
The conditions in the infirmary when she arrived were described as "disorder, extravagance of every description in the establishment to an incredible degree".
Soon after she arrived, Jones brought 12 trained nurses and seven probationers (all trained at the
Nightingale School of Nursing
The Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care is an academic faculty within King's College London. The faculty is the world's first nursing school to be continuously connected to a fully serving hospital and medic ...
in London)
to the infirmary. This initial group were supplemented by further probationers and 54 able-bodied female inmates who were paid a small salary.
This was the first training for nurses in any workhouse infirmary, paving the way for nurse training systems in other workhouses across the UK;
social reformer
Eva McLaren
Eva Maria McLaren (née Müller; 1852 – 16 August 1921) was an English suffragist, writer and campaigner. She served as Superintendent of the Franchise department of the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union. She was actively associated wit ...
was among those trained there as a nurse.
Closure
The need for the workhouse and its hospital gradually reduced during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the institution closing in the late 1920s and the site being put up for sale in 1930. Acquired by the Roman Catholic church, the workhouse was demolished in 1931
and the site is today occupied by the
Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral.
References
Bibliography
* Royden, Mike (2017), 'The Poor Law and Workhouse in Liverpool' in ''Tales from the 'Pool'', Creative Dreams,
* Royden, Mike (2000) ‘The Nineteenth century Poor Law in Liverpool and its Hinterland: Towards the Origins of the Workhouse Infirmary’, ''Journal of the Liverpool Medical History Society'', Volume 11
{{authority control
Workhouses in England
Hospitals in Liverpool
Poor law infirmaries
Defunct hospitals in England
Buildings and structures demolished in 1931