UCL BLOOMSBURY PROJECT

History

It was opened in 1872 at 127 Gower Street and was actually a maternity clinic; originally called the Maternity Institution, this seems to have been changed very rapidly to the more obscure All Saints’ Institution

It was designed for “poor married women, expecting a difficult or dangerous confinement” (The Times, 25 December 1871)

It was opened in connection with University College Hospital, whose obstetric physician supervised its running; women patients who could not be suitably treated in the general wards of UCH could come here instead (The Times, 25 December 1871)

Each patient was “provided with a separate room,” and by 1874 the Home had treated 70 patients (The Times, 17 December 1874)

From 1872 to May 1876 there had been 105 patients, including 42 who required operations (The Times, 22 December 1876)

Dickens’s Dictionary of London of 1879 lists its physicians as Dr Graily Hewitt and Dr John Williams, but makes no mention of its purpose

On 18 March 1872 The Times carried an appeal for the further £1200 still needed to buy the 47-year lease of 127 Gower Street, which appeal was evidently successful, as the Home was still based there in 1883, according to the Royal Blue Book

The Home featured in The Times until 1884, when a special fundraising performance by the Philothespian Club to be held in April was advertised (The Times, 27 March 1884)

By 1891 the Home had left 127 Gower Street and there is no sign of it elsewhere; it apparently simply ceased to exist