I've just foud out that Hammersmith Hospital, where I was born, was built as a workhouse. In fact it's astonishing how many London hospitals were converted from workhouses.
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I Was Born In The Workhouse!
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So was I Paul - the Workhouse I mean.
Most Workhouses were converted into hospitals in the ealy 1900s and then taken over by the National Health Service in the 1940s, as they were ready made and ready-equipped.
From the early 1900s (can't remember the exact date) the Registrar General instructed all Registrars not to put "Workhouse" or "Institution" on any certificate, such was the stigma of being either born or dying there. Only the street address was to be used.
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50+ years ago after babies were born in the local hospital they went to a lying in hospital for a few days until they went home. This lying in hospital was the old fever hospital - hope all the germs had gone!!!!!! It's since been knocked down.
Researching Irish families: FARMER, McBRIDE McQUADE, McQUAID, KIRK, SANDS/SANAHAN (Cork), BARR,
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Member
- Sep 2006
- 760
- Barrow in Furness, Lancashire, United Kingdom, 115432035138738, Barrow in Furness
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Our Workhouse became a hospital, and many of the elderly town residents didn't like being treated there. It's been demolished, and a housing estate is being built there. The streets are being named after some of the doctors that used to work there.
Our old maternity hospital is now a private residental home, raising the possibility of more people being born and dying in the same building.
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I was born in a Salvation Army Hospital for unmarried mothers....well it had been in the past. Mum said she always got a funny look when she said she was having the baby there, she was well and truly married! By the time I was born it was just a Salvation Army Maternity Hosp, but the stigma was still attatched to it.Sue x
Looking for Hanmores in Kent, Blakers in Essex and Kent, Pickards in East London and Raisons in Somerset.
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Originally posted by Sue at the seaside View PostI was born in a Salvation Army Hospital for unmarried mothers....well it had been in the past. Mum said she always got a funny look when she said she was having the baby there, she was well and truly married! By the time I was born it was just a Salvation Army Maternity Hosp, but the stigma was still attatched to it.
She was shocked and said that there was no way she was having her baby in the workhouse.
As I am 3 years older than OH and I was born there I was very insulted. I told her it wasnt the workhouse by that time (1956). She was having none of it.
Funny though I had both my children in the same hospital and she never said that then. Perhaps realised she had upset me.
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I was just having a look through "my favourites" and came across this, wondered if it might be of interest. www.workhouses.org.uk - The Workhouse Web SiteSue x
Looking for Hanmores in Kent, Blakers in Essex and Kent, Pickards in East London and Raisons in Somerset.
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Hitchin Workhouse was converted to a maternity hospital and then into an old people's home, but it also does outpatient work of a non-acute kind. A road that runs nearby is still called "Union Path" (it was the Union Workhouse).
So my children were born in Stevenage, which annoyed me - I would have liked them to be born in their home town.
I was born in Redhill (which was much further away from parents' home than other hospitals, but it was all to do with our GP).~ with love from Little Nell~Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy
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Oh dear. Just googled and found:
"The site of the Redhill General - next to Earlswood common - has also now been used for housing. The General was previously known as the Redhill County Hospital (and briefly the Surrey County Hospital, Redhill) and could trace its origins back as far as 1794, when 'The Union' workhouse occupied the site."~ with love from Little Nell~Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy
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Isn't it funny that now we say with some pride "I was born in the workhouse"!
My Grandad was born in the Strand Union in 1898, but his mother wasn't an inmate (as I discovered when I went to the LMA) as the record says "discharged herself to own home".
I think my aunts were ashamed of where their Dad was born, so I was pleased to tell them the real story!Alison
Researching:
CAVE, CUCKOW/COSHOW, DAKIN, GILBERT, GINN, HUXLEY, LEATT, LETTEN, PATTERSON, PERRY, PORTER, SOMMERVILLE, WEEDON, WHITING
http://www.authonomy.com/ViewBook.aspx?bookid=1025
http://www.authonomy.com/ViewBook.aspx?bookid=2650
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Originally posted by Laura the Explorer View PostHi
I am not telling you this really but I was born in Parkhyrst LOL Laura
I can see the forest from my houseAlison
Researching:
CAVE, CUCKOW/COSHOW, DAKIN, GILBERT, GINN, HUXLEY, LEATT, LETTEN, PATTERSON, PERRY, PORTER, SOMMERVILLE, WEEDON, WHITING
http://www.authonomy.com/ViewBook.aspx?bookid=1025
http://www.authonomy.com/ViewBook.aspx?bookid=2650
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