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Birmingham Eye Hospital

J

Jill

master brummie
Dear Postie, Would you happen to have a photo of Birmingham Eye Hospital which I believe is now a posh hotel. I have a friend who is going to stay there and I would like to show her how it once looked. Thanks in advance for any help. :)
 
At one time the water from Rowton Well in Sutton Park was carried to the Eye Hospital daily by a horse drawn tank. It was claimed to possess mineral qualities of special value to cure diseases of the eyes.
Wouldn't it be nice if the water from the well was still around today!!! :)
 
loisand. History of
Birmingham Eye Hospital. Len.

Founded 1823 by Joseph Hodgson, Eye Surgeon at The Eye Institution, Cannon Street. Later moved to Steelhouse Lane and then Temple Row. Moved yet again in 1884 to Church Street before finally being relocated to City Hospital, Dudley Road in 1996.
The Birmingham and Midland Eye Hospital was first established in Cannon Street in 1824, and subsequently transferred in 1853 to premises in Steelhouse Lane, purchased for £1,900; in 1862 other buildings in Temple Street were bought and adapted at a cost of £8,217 for the reception of 45 patients; but these proving still inadequate, an entirely new Hospital was erected in 1884 in Church Street, with frontages to Edmund Street and Barwick Street, at a cost, including fittings, of about £20,000, and available for 70 in patients, and the Hospital was opened Thursday 24 July 1884, by Lady Leigh.

The building designed in the Franco-Italian style, is four storeys in height, with ornamental dormers above the cornice; in the centre of the principle front is a spacious rusticated portico, the bay over which rises into a lofty gable, and at the angles are slightly projecting towers.

There is an operating theatre and pathological laboratory and recovery room. The number of in patients treated during the twelve months ending March, 1898, was 1,140, and of out patients 24,440; an average of 177 out patients were attended to daily.

The Hospital was extended in 1895, by the erection of a new wing on a site required for that purpose in 1894; this addition includes childrens wards, day room, bath room, nurses room &c., and the Hospital in 1900 was available for 105 in patients.

 
The window on the corner is where I sat when waiting for an operation at the age of Nine. I think it was the day room. When I next went in it was a Womens ward.
 
Inside there was a large examination room and the Specialist Eye Doctors sat at their desks raised up from the floor you went up and they examined you and gave prescriptions for eye drops or spectacles or if you had a serious problem the would refer you to come back as an inpatient, a lot of the Doctors had come to GB by leaving Nazi Germany, it was very similar to The Ear, Nose & Throat Hospital set up. Len.
 
Thank you for that interesting history. I started training at the Eye Hospital in 1960. And returned as night sister from 1973-1976. Eileen Jones was the Matron and Sister Edwards was the Assistant Matron. The nurses' home was on Ludgate Hill. It was presided over by Sister Dwight the "Home Sister".
I would love to hear from anyone who remembers these wonderful characteres.
 
Pedrocut said:
The Old Eye Hospital, John Bright Street from Looking at Birmingham by Richardson, Anny (1994)

View attachment 175903
Click to expand...


Thanks to Pete (post above) for noticing that the picture is not of the Old Eye hospital but in fact the old Skin and Look hospital, which has its own thread. The caption below the picture appears to be incorrect in the book “Looking at Birmingham.” I have rechecked the book but there are no errata.

In this picture you cannot see the full frontal view of the building but the 18 seen is part of a date 1881. In 1881 the Skin and Lock Hospital was at a temporary home in Newhall Street. In 1886 they had sufficient funds to purchase and build a new hospital in John Bright St. which opened in 1888.

Why the building is dated 1881 is a bit puzzling, but it may refer to the date that John Bright Street was named.
 
I remember the old Eye Hospital, but only as a young user of it's services. As a youngster I twice had 'something in me eye' that would not go away, so was taken to the Eye Hospital.
All I can recall is mom saying to my uncle (who lived next door) 'e's got somethin in 'is eye, can you take 'im up the eye 'ospital' and uncle whisking me away to the bus stop and on into town. I don't know where in town it was; all I recall is going into a brightly lit room, being told to sit in a chair like the dentist's, and having some drops put in my eye. I was not brave and squirmed and moaned until uncle (who you did not argue with) said 'pack it in', when a metal thing was dragged across my eye (without the slightest pain or feeling) and the object removed. Then came the good bit; you had a round patch of cotton wool or something like that stuck across your eye, and so looked a real hard case, a proper tough guy! (so I thought). I went home on the bus proudly sporting my eye patch and was disappointed that it was taken off before I was sent to school the next day.
The real point when I look back on it is how wonderful the service from the NHS was then; instant access and fast service to put right a minor problem. In those days (the 1950's) we were spoiled and took it for granted, even moaning about going to the doctor's surgery in the morning, with no appointment, and knowing we would be seen and treated even if we had to wait a while to be seen. All wonderful immendiate care and attention which we thought would always be the same.
 
Mother went blind apparently quite suddenly and her sight was saved by an operation for glaucoma at Church Street in the early 1970s. On the way in the receiving doctor asked me 'How long has she has Parkinson's Disease?' What's that I replied. We soon learned. But it was invaluable to have rapid diagnosis and a letter for her GP. I'm naturally very grateful to the staff there.
 
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