Manchester Hospital for Sick Children Hospital Road Pendlebury

Later became Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. Later additions. Most of the hospital was demolished 2011 and the site redeveloped for housing

In the early nineteenth century, dispensaries were a common response to meet the medical needs of the poor. In 1829, Dr Alexander and Mr Stott, had opened a small dispensary in Ridgfield, Manchester, to provide free treatment of sick children. At the suggestion of the Bishop of Manchester, a small hospital with six beds was established in North Parade in 1853, moving to larger premises on Bridge Street in 1858. The building, on a site later occupied by Messrs Beith, Stevenson  and Company's warehouse, was adapted to provide for twenty‑five patients, including a special ward for infectious diseases. As a result of the constantly growing demand for medical relief, it was eventually decided to build a larger hospital in the suburbs, and to erect a convenient dispensary in the city centre. By this time the number of cases treated in the Dispensary had risen to 7,000, and those admitted to the Hospital to 350. 

A plot of nearly six acres was acquired at Pendlebury, at a cost of £450 per acre, and a new hospital with three wards was built on the pavilion system. The New Hospital was opened in 1872 but it was soon apparent that the pressure upon the Institution required the completion of the plan, involving the addition of three wards. Two of the additional wards were built at the expense of Bernhard Liebert and Oliver Heywood, and with funds raised at a bazaar held in the Free Trade Hall in 1875, the Hospital was completed and formally opened 30 January 1878.

The hospital was built of yellow Ruabon brick, the main elevation, facing Hospital Road, comprising a two storey administrative building flanked by two lower front pavilions. Near the entrance hall were the resident officers' rooms, the lady superintendent's room, and other rooms for hospital staff.  A long, light corridor, twelve feet wide, traverses the building.  From this corridor the six wards, each forming a separate pavilion, opened to the right and left. Each ward was shut off from the main corridor by a side passage with glass doors at each end, The wards each contained twenty‑six cots,  with a small ward for two beds attached,  for those cases which might need special treatment. Beds were arranged down each side of the long rooms, which are lit with large windows on each side, while near the fireplaces, in the centre of the room, stood the cots for the younger children.  Each ward was under the care of a  sister, assisted by five nurses. Totally separate from the main complex, a fever ward was also built.  Oliver Heywood president of the institution for nearly 30 years. Others closely involved included John Henry Agnew, T J Bolland,  William Agnew,  H. M. Steinthal, . J. B. Close Brooks and the Rev. S. Alfred Steinthal

THE PROPOSED NEW HOSPITAL FOR SICK CHILDREN IN PENDLEBURY – The architects’ designs for the new Sick Children’s Hospital in Pendlebury are now on view at Messrs Agnew’s Exchange Street. Six architects have competed whose designs signed respectively “En Avant,” “Herbert,” “Palmam Qui Merunt Ferat,” “Sanitas,” “MD-a” and “MD-b.” The two latter have been sent in by Messrs Pennington and Bridgen, of this city, and their plan with the initial “MD-a” has been selected. The building, which is Italian in its general outline, is of a plain but substantial character. The fronts are intended to be faced with white bricks, with dressings of stone. There are six pavilions, each of which will be supplied with 26 beds, and the communication will be by means of a corridor 12 feet wide. At the end of each pavilion is a small room for two beds for special cases; with through ventilation and all necessary arrangements for domestic purposes. In accordance with the fundamental principle of the “pavilion system” each pavilion is a complete hospital in itself, and contains all the appliances required both for patients and nurses. The corridor, necessarily of considerable length is broken by octagonal dome lanterns at the intersections or junctions of the pavilions with the corridor. On the corridor there are also the various operating rooms and wards, a gymnasium or playground, dispensary, and linen room. In the rear, and connected to the main corridor by an open passage, is the laundry. The administrative block consists of a three storey building at the western extremity of the site, facing the road, and contains on the ground floor spacious entrance hall, waiting and board rooms, and accommodation for the medical officers, matron, and resident surgeon. The architects, taking advantage of the considerable fall in the land, have placed the whole of the kitchen offices and stores on the floor beneath. The nurses are provided with accommodation entirely separate from that of the domestic servants. All the corridors and staircases will be fireproof; the floors will be tiled, and the walls of the kitchens, lavatories, etc. lined with white glazed tiles. The walls of the wards will be finished in Parian cement; and the pavilions will be heated by open fireplaces. All redundancy of accommodation and ornate architectural features have been studiously avoided, with the view to the economical erection and working of the establishment. Externally a considerable amount of architectural effect is produced by the varied outlines and groupings of the blocks of buildings. A lofty clock tower rises above the roof of the administrative block, indicating the position of the hospital from the turnpike road. The Architects estimate the cost of building the hospital with six pavilions complete for 156 beds, at the rate of £126 per bed. [Manchester Guardian 27 July 1870 page 6]

OPENING OF THE GENERAL HOSPITAL FOR SICK CHILDREN – The first portion of the new Hospital for Sick Children at Pendlebury has just been completed, and the formal opening took place yesterday. The building, which has a commanding aspect, has been erected under the superintendence of Messrs Pennington and Bridgen, architects, of this city, whose designs were selected in a limited competition. It is intended to accommodate the establishment lately located in Bridge-Street, which for some years past, owing to its situation and the small extent of its premises, had been totally inadequate to the wants of the city and to the successful working of an institution of this kind. In many respects this hospital must be considered an advance on the arrangement of similar buildings on the pavilion system, inasmuch as, with exception of the administrative block, it is one storey only in height, an arrangement which, while it completely embodies the ides of each pavilion containing within itself a complete hospital, and counteracting the serious evils which are always experienced by the hospital atmosphere ascending through the staircases when the wards are placed one over another, diminishes both the labour and cost of administration. The distance, also, between the pavilions (160 feet), and a very large air space afforded to each patient, upwards of 1,600 cubic feet, and the abundance of light throughout the building are noteworthy. The hospital will accommodate 170 patients when completed, but at present only three of the pavilions on the north side of the corridor have been erected; the administrative portions, however, for the entire hospital are in all respects finished and fitted up.  The land falls very considerably from the north to the south, which, though it has added somewhat to the cost of the building, has enabled the architects to place the kitchens, stores, and offices in the necessarily formed third storey (the corridors being level) under the administrative block, and to devote the whole of the ground floor to purely hospital purposes and to the accommodation required tor the resident surgeon, matron, and other officers of the establishment. On the first floor are the sleeping apartments for the nurses and servants in the north and south wings respectively, to which separate staircases give access and effect the necessary separation. Each pavilion is arranged for 26 patients, with a window between each bed; is 100 feet long, 26 feet wide and 16 feet high to the flat ceiling; and heated by four open tiled fireplaces in the centre of the wards, built back to back. At the entrance to each pavilion are a special ward for two beds, a nurses’ kitchen, and linen, brush, and water-closet. At the other extremity are baths, lavatories, and water-closets, on a scale adapted to the age of the patients, and a veranda, accessible from the pavilions. The extreme easterly pavilion being devoted to fever patients, a separate entrance and reception room are provided. The pavilions are connected by a spacious corridor, 12 feet wide, ventilated and lighted on both sides, with an open boarded ceiling, and octagonal lanterns at the intersections of the main with the connecting corridors. The operating-room, with the ward for one bed attached, the gymnasium or playroom, reception-room for general patients together with the dispensary service (with lifts from the basement), linen and house-keeper's rooms, are placed conveniently on the main corridor. The remainder of the building consists of the laundry and block of buildings containing the stables, coach-house, post-mortem room, dead-house, etc. The lodge entrance is on the road approaching from Manchester. The administrative block is surmounted by clock tower, rising to a height of 100 feet. All the buildings are of plain but substantial character. The front pavilion, administrative block, and lodge are faced with yellow Rubbon bricks; all the cornices and chimney-tops have been executed in similar materials, interspersed with a few bands of chocolate glazed bricks. The stone, of which a sparing use has been made, has been quarried in the locality. The other buildings are of common bricks with arches in stocks, earthenware or damp-proof courses being carried round all the wails. The floors of the pavilions are of oak. The internal walls are finished in Parisian cement. and the windows glazed with plate glass. The walls of the kitchen and of all the lavatories, water-closets, and bathrooms are to be lined to the height of 5 feet with glazed wall tiles; and the whole the wood- work is of red pine, stained and varnished. The floor of the main corridor is paved with patent concrete, with a border of Staffordshire tiles on each side. The corridors of the administrative block are fireproof, and, together with the vestibule and entrance hall, are laid with Minton’s tiles. The carriages, landings, and rims of the nurses’ and servants' stairs are of iron, with treads of teak. Mr. W. Southern, of Manchester and Salford, is the contractor for the entire building, including boundary walls and fences. Messrs Willson supplied the cooking and heating apparatus, gas and water mains, engine, boiler, etc., for the wash-house, which is fitted with Messrs. Bradford's washing machines. Mr. George Gilbert executed the earthworks, formation of roads, and the drainage. The total amount of the various contracts was £15,000. The walls of the vestibule are ornamented by two marble medallions by Kopf, the gift of Mr H M Steinthal, chairman of the Building Committee. [Manchester Guardian Friday 10 January 1873 Page 6]

Reference    Manchester Guardian 27 July 1870 page 6 – competition
Reference    Manchester Guardian Friday 10 January 1873 Page 6 Column 4 - report of opening
Reference    Building News 17 January 1873 Page 88
Reference    The Builder 1872: 845.
Reference    Manchester Faces & Places