1925

Sefton General Hospital was originally part of the Toxteth Park Workhouse, built in 1859. The address of 126 Smithdown Road is worth noting. The nature of Victorian England means that the institution is not always named on official documents, but simply given as an address, to avoid the stigma of the workhouse.

In 1923 the workhouse changed its name to the Smithdown Road Institution.

In 1930 the poor law was abolished and in 1933, the hospital, which was now administered by Liverpool Corporation, changed its name to Smithdown Road Infirmary.
 

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Part of the overall site of Sefton General Hospital was an annexe (shown above)  which cared for the mentally ill, who were housed in a separate building. The above photograph came top me entitled 'Mental Block, 1925'.

Building work on parts of the site towards Arundel Avenue, began in 1908 and during excavations lead coffins were unearthed.  These were nothing to do with Toxteth Park Cemetery but were associated with the Society of Friends (Quaker) burial ground which stood nearby.  Much of the 'hospital' land was, I am told, originally owned by the Quakers. It was later sold as building land for the workhouse. A small part of this, evidently once larger, cemetery still exists, although the associated Friends' Meeting House is no longer. It appears that new housing is now being erected on the site of the old Quaker burial ground.

At the end of WW2 Smithdown Road Infirmary had over 1,000 beds and came under the care of the National Health Service in 1948. In about 1950 it changed its name to Sefton General Hospital. By this time it had a large maternity section (where I was born!).  I recall a TB testing annexe on Smithdown Road close to the Willow Bank Dairy in the 1960s, perhaps later.

The hospital was gradually wound down and by the 1970s the number of beds had been halved. It was demolished in 2001. One small part of the original workhouse hospital still stands - with Arundel House still being used for psychiatric purposes.

Records and History courtesy of Liverpool Record Office, Liverpool Libraries. Visit Liverpool Libraries online catalogues at http://archive.liverpool.gov.uk
This photo, dated 9th Oct 1925, appeared in a souvenir volume presented to the Rt Hon Neville Chamberlain, MP, Minister of Health on his visit to West Derby Union hospitals and Institutions.