Birmingham Children’s hospital

[dottieau]

A little question I was looking on a map of Birmingham and the children s hospital looks to be on the site of the General Hospital. Where was the other children s hospital I think we used to catch a bus that went up Broad Street. Could some one answer this for please.

 

[Ray Barrett]

Dot,
It was near Five Ways ( Ladywood Rd.) across the road from Tesco.The facade is still there.

 

[guilbert53]

Here it is (click on link below - takes a few seconds to load)

It is now part of a leasure complex - gym, cinema, bars, restaurants etc

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=e...nBEwnP_61Lo1Po8ZzGgYRg&cbp=12,210.11,,0,-1.54

 

[pollypops]

Here it is. The road is now called Ladywood Middleway, B16.
You can still see the Childrens Hospital sign in the stonework above the door. Sorry it is a bit distorted but it is the way the google street camera has joined it together.
Polly

 

[dottieau]

Ray, Guilbert53 and Polly thanks for your replies I must say the area is really changed from the days when I used to go to the hospital as a child.But then the whole of Birmingham is so different to how I remember it.

 

[johndavies]

The front of the hospital is a grade 2 listed building, hence why it had to be incorporated in the leisure complex. As far as I am aware, the frontage never housed patients but contained the boardroom and administration offices. The main ward block was attached behind the frontage with an infectious disease ward set apart. In the 1940s, a new baby block named after Leonard Parsons was built at the back of the hospital.

 

[michaelr]

I went to the Childrens hospital in the fifties and sixties, for treatment for a lazey eye, which consisted of resting my chin on a chin rest and looking through two viewers, which the nurse put slids in the viewers and bringing the slids together.
I remember going in the entrance round the back of he hospital in Francis Road, Ladywood .
michaelr

 

[dottieau]

HI Michaeir I just had to reply to your post as I used to go there for my eyes. I still remember so well the test the rabbit with the bunch of flowers and you had to move them. i guess it was some sort of exercise for you eyes.

 

[Ray Barrett]

One of my grandsons had a liver transplant there when he was 11 months old.They took such great care of him,and when the hospital moved too the old general,his after care still continued.He is now a 6ft. 14 year old and tougher than both his elder rugby playing brothers.At his most recent check up,the Dr.asked if he had any questions, his only question being..."will it affect my sex life?",my daughter was mortified,but the lady doctor said,"don't worry, I have been asked that before.
Wonderful caring people doing a great job...bless em'..

 

[sylviasayers]

Ray, what a wonderful outcome for your grandson, we sometimes knock the NHS but overall they do a grand job.

When I was about 3 years old I was taken to the Children's Hospital with gastro enteritis, the only thing I remember is the frieze round the walls with paintings of animals, the one that sticks out is of a giraffe (must have been his long neck) !"!!!!

 

[celia]

when i was 7 years old which (was about 1977 ish) i spent 2 weeks in the childrens hospital to have my tomsils out
i remember the food being not very nice and being bored silly while i was there lol

but i do remember most is lying awake in bed and counting the chimes on a clock i could hear
so im not sure if the hospital was some where in the cemtre of town or the one thats in ladywood midleway

 

[ASTONITE]

View attachment 57091pictures of the General and the Childrens' hospitals.View attachment 57090

 

[Louis Dalby]

I was in the " Children's from December 1945 to February 1946 ( Ward 3) before being moved to " Moseley Hall where I stayed till July 1946. My Doctor was Mr Stammers, I will always be grateful for the treatment I received there and later ( c 1956) at the General.

 

[old sutton roader]

RE; CHILDRENS HOSPITAL

I was in ward 3 of the childrens in May 1958, having my appendix out. The doctor who performed the op, it was his first operation on his own, and the nurse who looked after me was Maureen Evans, and it was her first time in the theatre. I can always remember him telling her if she was going to faint to leave the theatre, as you can imagine it filled me with a lot of confidence. I am pleased to say that everything went well!.

 

[GarthJh]

I have come across these old photos and suspect they may be from B'ham Childrens' Hospital. Does this one ring a bell with anyone??

GarthView attachment 70806

 

[jukebox]

I had my appendix removed at the Children's in 1950. The experience was not a happy one - it was the first time I had ever been away from home (I was 9) and visitors were not permitted then so I didn't see my parents for 10 days. They used to wake us up for breakfast very early (about 5.30 if I remember correctly) by turning the lights on and whistling very loudly. They still used chloroform as the anaesthetic. The only highlight was seeing a banana for the first time!

 

[Louis Dalby]

I had my appendix removed at the Children's in 1950. The experience was not a happy one - it was the first time I had ever been away from home (I was 9) and visitors were not permitted then so I didn't see my parents for 10 days. They used to wake us up for breakfast very early (about 5.30 if I remember correctly) by turning the lights on and whistling very loudly. They still used chloroform as the anaesthetic. The only highlight was seeing a banana for the first time!

With reference to my last post I was in the same ward has Jukebox but in 1945 and yes from the December to when I was moved to Moseley Hall where visiting was just has tight I saw my Mum and Dad once a fortnight I did not leave Moseley Hall till the following July. I think the night staff had the job of giving us our breakfast and has they went off at 7.00 it had to be completed before the day team came on duty. I had my UPS ( Christmas 1945 ) and Downs but they saved my life and I will always be grateful for that.

 

[mike jenks]

hi

it only seems minutes ago as i limped into drs sueters surgery at green lane
castle bromwich with a high temp. 60 years ago i was sent straight to the
childrens hospital screaming and kicking. poor chap who carried me in.
straight into a room and i was plastered from head to toe and laid in a bed.
it was plaster of paris but adhesive white tape so i could move around. little did i know i was in a
intial polio analysis room. kids came in and out i lay there for 3 weeks.
at the end a dr came in looked at my charts and said you can go home.
the nurses then peeled off the tape it was agony but going home wow.
the next day mom and dad picked me up.
i was one of the lucky ones loads perished from those polio epidemics

mike jenks

 

[Wendy]

What a great insight into childrens care at this time. I remember children taken ill with Polio it was quite scary. I have just finished a book about a district nurse in the 50's what a difference from today. As has been said we must be greatful to the doctors and nurses for saving so many young lives.

 

[Stitcher]

This excavation work was the start of a new block for babies at the Children's Hosptital. Photo late 30s.

 

[Stitcher]

I have just come across this in an old envelope with some other stuff.

 

[Stitcher]

This is a ward in The Childrens Hospital.

 

[Louis Dalby]

View attachment 76728
This is a ward in The Childrens Hospital.

This ward looks like Ward 4 secound floor which I was in from november 1945 to March 1946. The window far distance left shows a small ward, the person on the right is a ward maid and the member of staff on the left is standing by the windows which opened the full length of the ward. The tables and chairs where outside another sideward.

 

[mike jenks]

Hi

Yes the several weeks I lay there covered in plaster tape unable to move.
Initial treatment for polio suspects. I remember those Lamps hanging from the
ceiling. One day a large group of Drs came two nurses tore off the plaster tape.
loads of prodding and pulling limbs. Then I heard the words discharge him.
Mom and Dad were there in a few hours and I was home.
Not a clue

Mike Jenks

 

[Stitcher]

This picture is the oldest one I have and it has the word victorian written on it.

 

[Stitcher]

<img id="vbattach_77111" class="previewthumb" alt="" src="https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=77111&amp;stc=1" attachmentid="77111"><br>This picture is the oldest one I have and it has the word victorian written on it.<br>&nbsp;

 

[Stitcher]

These two have the word 'Victorian' written on the back.

These two have 1900 written on the back.

 

[sistersue61]

The general treatment for suspected polio, no matter how slight the suspicion was to immobilise, the thought being that if you could not move, the polio would not spread, just shows how much things have changed nowadays, although there are talks of a polio revival, as many families are not taking up the innoculations for their children, as they feel there is no risk as it is not seen any more.same as some of the other diseases common in days gone by.
Lots of things have changed today though, when I started my training, I worked at an orthopaedic hospital, where the childrens ward sister was an older lady and firmly followed the rules that all children should be outside for at least 2 hours, no matter what the weather - a relic from the old TB hospitals - and as our hospital was set in parkland, with terraces. that happened religiously with no excuses, but I am sure the children all benefitted from it.
Sue

 

[Stitcher]

Hello Sue, I have written on the forum about my sister who was taken frome by ambulance when she was just two years old. The Childrens Hospital diagnosed rhuematoid Artritis ans she was kept in for months, encased in plaster casts for most of the time.

 

[Rutlandbelle]

The front of the hospital is a grade 2 listed building, hence why it had to be incorporated in the leisure complex. As far as I am aware, the frontage never housed patients but contained the boardroom and administration offices. The main ward block was attached behind the frontage with an infectious disease ward set apart. In the 1940s, a new baby block named after Leonard Parsons was built at the back of the hospital.