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  UCL BLOOMSBURY PROJECT

 

Bloomsbury Project

Bloomsbury Institutions

Benevolent

Home for Incurables

Also known as Home for the Aged and Incurable/Home for Incurable Women/Nursing Home for the Elderly and Incurable/Woodside Home for Incurable or Infirm Women

Not to be confused with the Hospital for Infirm and Incurable Women, or with St Luke’s Home, the second similar home founded by Louisa Twining

History

It was opened by Louisa Twining in 1862 under the aegis of her Workhouse Visiting Society

Her Industrial Home at 23 New Ormond Street (now 22 Great Ormond Street) had taken in a few “aged and infirm persons” over Christmas 1861, and the Committee of the Workhouse Visiting Society decided there was sufficient demand to take the house next door specifically for the purpose (The Kalendar of the English Church Union, 1863)

Another year later, the house on the other side of the Girls’ Home became vacant; it was larger still, so the Home moved there, now housing 30 incurables on its three floors, Harmony, Concord, and Peace (Louisa Twining, Recollections of Life and Work: Being the Autobiography of Louisa Twining, 1893)

According to Twining, her friend Angela Burdett-Coutts was a strong supporter from the outset, as with so many of her institutions (Louisa Twining, letter to The Times, 1 January 1907) o The Times, 1 January 1907)

According to the History of the County of Middlesex, vol. 6 (Victoria County History), it closed between 1937 and 1941

This would come as a surprise to the Home, which is still flourishing in Whetstone

What was reforming about it?

It was a haven for sick and elderly women who otherwise had nowhere else to go

Their nursing care was at least partly provided by trained girls from the Industrial Home next door

According to Twining, it was only “the second home of the kind in London” (letter to The Times, 1 January 1907)

Where in Bloomsbury

It was at 22 New Ormond Street (now 20 Great Ormond Street) from 1862 to 1863, and at 24 New Ormond Street (now 24 Great Ormond Street) from 1863 until 1888, when the lease was due to expire (Louisa Twining, Recollections of Life and Work: Being the Autobiography of Louisa Twining, 1893)

The home then moved to Whetstone as the Woodside Home; by this time, its management was out of Twining’s hands (Louisa Twining, letter to The Times, 1 January 1907)

Website of current institution

www.woodsidehome.org.uk (opens in new window)

Books about it

Louisa Twining, Recollections of Life and Work: Being the Autobiography of Louisa Twining (1893)

Archives

Records of the Family Welfare Association’s investigation into the Home are held at LMA, ref. A/FWA/C/D/232/001 (closed until 2016); details are available online via Access to Archives (opens in new window)

This page last modified 13 April, 2011 by Deborah Colville

 

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