An invalid boy in a Bath chair outside an open air sleeping-chalet. Photograph by W. Ames, ca. 1900.

The chalet contains a bed and a chair and is open except for a curtain on one side, possibly to allow fresh air to circulate for the benefit of a tuberculous inhabitant. In the foreground, a boy or young man in a Bath chair, and a woman (presumably his mother)

Similar chalets were placed in the grounds of Mundesley Sanatorium and subsequently at Kelling Sanatorium, both in Norfolk, by Dr F.W. Burton-Fanning of Norwich, who is said to have invented them (Richardson, loc. cit.). Burton-Fanning credits Mr W.J. Fanning and Mr L D'Oyly Carte with the design of the Kelling version (Burton-Fanning, op. cit., p. 167)

"A large number of manufacturers are now supplying shelters similar to that shown in Fig. 1 [similar in design to the one in the present photograph], at the price of about ten guineas, or an intelligent local carpenter can often be trusted to build the same thing for somewhat less. The dimensions of the floor-space are about seven feet by six feet ..."--Burton-Fanning, loc. cit.

Norwich (199 Nelson Street) : W. Ames, [1900]

1 photograph : photoprint, silver gelatin ; sheet 15 x 10.5 cm

F.W. Burton-Fanning, The open-air treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis, London 1905, pp. 156-157, 167-172

Harriet Richardson (ed.), English hospitals 1660-1948, London 1998, p. 147 (similar buildings at Mundesley)

Wellcome Collection 627403i