Metropolitan workhouse infirmaries, &c. : Copy of the report of Dr. Edward Smith, Poor Law inspector and medical officer to the Poor Law Board, on the Metropolitan Workhouse infirmaries and sick wards / (Viscount Enfield).

  • Smith, Edward, 1818?-1874.
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Metropolitan workhouse infirmaries, &c. : Copy of the report of Dr. Edward Smith, Poor Law inspector and medical officer to the Poor Law Board, on the Metropolitan Workhouse infirmaries and sick wards / (Viscount Enfield). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    In detached or separate infirmaries the wards are for the most part single, and have windows on both sides. In some, as at the new buildings at Chelsea, corridors run along the side of the wards, whilst more generally the passage is through the wards, and in some, as at Stepney and East London, the objection- able plan is adopted in some wards of directing the passage along one side of the ward, and thus preventing the proper arrangement of the beds. In nearly all such buildings there must be some wards where windows can be placed on one side only; and where side corridors exist, windows are not always placed in the wall separating it from the ward. There will also usually be end wards where windows will be found on two or three sides, or where in such posi- tions two wards will be built back to back, as at East London, with a blank and often unbroken partition wall. It is perhaps as unusual to find double wards separated by a corridor in the infirmary buildings as it is usual in the main building of the workhouses, but, as at West London, it does sometimes occur. It is impossible to consider in this general manner the arrangements of the minor buildings in many of the workhouses, which in the special reports on each workhouse, I have recommended to be taken down, since they are of every size, form, and mode of arrangement: but very generally they are outer buildings which were designed for workrooms, as at St. Mary Newington, or for school- rooms, as at Kensington. Perhaps in illustration of the diversity of arrangement in the several buildings, I might advantageously cite St. George-in-the-East, with its old dark and cheerless buildings, its excellent new buildings, its disreputable vene- real wards in a lean-to, its imperfect imbecile arid nursery wards, and its “ stone buildings,” with large and good rooms, built side by side ; or St. Pancras, with a whole village of detached buildings ; or St. Mary Newington, or Fulham, with its main building, imbecile wards, general infirmary, and fever wards, all in distinct buildings, and of different modes of construction : and it may not be denied that additions, whether to the main building, or in the erection of infirmary, fever wards, casual wards, imbecile wards, and offices, have been made without unity of design, and the erections have been placed upon the land without order, and without regard to the appearance or the openness of the site. Yet, as a general expression, it must be stated that in a large majority of the workhouses, the infirmary and other sick wards have windows on two sides (one or both being from the outside), and that in general the wards are light, airy, and cheerful. There is, however, almost universally need for improvement, and in numerous instances I have pointed out in the special reports the neces- sity for placing windows in the corridors, as at Bethnal-green, Fulham, Stepney, East London, and West London; of increasing the number of the outside windows, as at Bethnal-green ; and of increasing the admission of light and air to the corridors. In reference to the former there is not any real difficulty in effecting the improvement; but, as to the latter, whilst some are so wide as to be used, or are capable of being used, as exercising grounds, as at Shoreditoh, others are too narrow to be materially improved. Moreover, some of the workhouses are, from their general construction, in- capable of material improvement, as at Islington, which the Directors have decided to pull down. The size and general appearance of the wards must necessarily vary much in workhouses of different ages and plans of construction. There are, however, but very few in which they are so large as to be wasteful in point of space, and where it becomes necessary to place one or more rows of beds in the mid- dle of the room. Such wards are met with at Lambeth, St. Pancras, Bermondsey, &c. rl here is only one ward, and that is at Bermondsey, which is of inconvenient length. Neither are the wards usually too small to admit of good ventilation, and the proper use of space; but a few of such are found in many workhouses. St. Margaret’s Westminster, is, as a whole, a marked instance of this defect; and several new infirmaries, as Mile End and West London, belong to the same class. Generally speaking, the wards in the body of workhouses are of moderate size, and are capable of both economical and efficient use of space, whilst in too many of the infirmaries the rooms are small. Piirt I. Details of the Inspection. Plans of Construc- tion (f the llork- houses, unth the Size and General Cha- racicrof theWards.