Genealogy Chat

Does anyone know if 48 Vanbrugh Hill was a hospital and if so what sort of hospital as at least 3 rellies died at this address between 1919 and 1933.
Thanks
Chris

Have you 'googled'?

Yes I tried googling but still have not got the answer

On Historical Directories London 1919, the numbers go up to 44 Vanbrugh Hill and then it says 'Greenwich Union Infimary'



http://www.historicaldirectories.org

If you google Greenwich Union Infirmary it will take you to the Workhouse web site


'The Vanburgh Hill Workhouse and Infirmary
The new Union workhouse was erected at the east side of Vanburgh Hill in 1840 to designs by RP Browne which he later described as 'plain but cheerful and almslike'

Thank you so much. I am on the site now and it now makes a lot of sense to me.
I knew that Greenwich Hospital used to be a workhouse but I was thrown when the address of death was coming up as 48 Vanbrugh Hill as I would have expected it to say Workhouse or similar.
Thanks again
Chris

my sister lives in the old military hospital in woolwich which has been converted into flats, she lives in a basement flat, didn't have the heart to tell her what it was used for!

OOOH yes i came from that area!! It was the old Greenwich Union Workhouse and that address was the Infirmary Hospital.
it was decided by the Powers that be !! that Infirmary Hospitals would have their postal addresses listed on certs because people were not happy with it being described as the Union Infirmary thereby implying that their rellie was in the Workhouse whereas they were just having free treatment/ childbirth/ death!! in the hospital
Under the NHS this Hospital was named as St Alphege,s Hospital .Our daughter was born there in 1958!! /It was rebuilt as the Greenwich District and that was later pulled down in favour of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital at Woolwich.
Shirley

OOH I used to work in Greenwich Hospital in the 1980's and it is on Vanbrugh Hill. I never knew it was on the site of the old workhouse though.

Jubaltroop

Jubal
If you were on the main road you could still see the portal gates of the Old Workhouse.
I had ancestors in that workhouse in the 1880,s that came from Greenwich and Deptford I lived in Charlton so old stamping grounds !!
Mind you thinking about it these may have gone by the 1980,s .my mum died in 1980 and prior to her death in about 1978/9 she was rushed into St Alfege's. .we went to visit and i was amazed how much it had changed. We went in the main entrance and to go up a floor there were escalators. It seemed like an upmarket Hotel by then so much so that it seemed a shame that it was later taken out of commission in favour of the new Hospital built at Woolwich and named the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
My Mum worked in the 1940,s /50,s as a ward orderly and then as a cleaner in the nurses home of St Alphege which was the previously the workhouse .it was very much the local hospital.
I believe when it was rebuilt it was then name Greenwich District Hospital.
We moved from the area in 1967 so didnt see the Hospital agian till the visit in the late 1970,s
Shirley

Thanks for everyones input.
Greenwich Hospital has been pulled down now. Another part of our history gone!
Thanks
Chris

Before we got married we went to look at a little terraced house just opposite the hospital - lovely little place but they hadnt mentioned a sitting tenant upstairs :)

The military hospital in Woolwich, I love those houses - I was looking at a flat for sale there on findaproperty today. Connaught Mews, isnt it?

Lorraine, what does your sister think of Woolwich and all the regeneration planned for it plus the DLR and cross rail. Is it lifting the area?

My eldest daughter was born in the Greenwich District Hospital in 1969............................ I also thought that it looked like a hotel with the escalators
Left the area 3months later so have never seen what it looks like now.


Marianne.

Was it still in existence in 1978? If so, my son was born there ... I never knew it had a history - it felt like a "modern" hospital ...

heather

yes my sister lives in connaught mews been there 5 years, the area itself is not too bad she bought the flat 5 years ago after renting since she moved to london 8 years ago.

She chose Woolwich because she couldn't afford to buy in city and with the DLR it is an up and coming area.

Connaught mews is a gated complex with entry systems so very secure, there are parking places for each flat , the grounds are lovely and there is even a communial gym.

I have the death certificate of a soldier March 1919 and it states he died South Eastern Hospital, Greenwich but no actual address. Irene

Thanks Lorraine - my son is in the middle of purchasing a flat near by (too late to see the Connaught Mews one) and I was a bit concerned about the area in general.

The places mentioned in this thread have brought back some memories for me! I was born in St Alphages Hospital and also knew the military hospital, wasn't it called the "Royal Herbert", well.

My brother was treated there for a very bad scald on his back after he had been treated at another hospital in the area, The Brook, I think by having butter rubbed on it! My father was furious and took him to the military hospital, even though he was no longer in the army, for proper treatment. This was in the 1930s.

Re 48 Vanbrugh Hill, I too found several relatives who died there. I believe it was a large group of buildings to do with the Workhouse of the Day. There seems to have been an Infirmary and actual Workhouse that combined with Woolwich before Woolwich had a new building. There was a Pest House at the time of the Black Death and victims were placed there to be cared for until they died. The newer building was near Diutton Street and eventually in the 1800 's possibly another proper Hospital was built which was St Alfege 's. In the sixties this building was demolished and the new Greenwich and University modern Hospital took its place. Hairdressers and Chiropodists were there for the use of Patients. That too eventually closed. Bunny K

What a wonderful post! It brings back so many memories. I was born in St. Alphege's, Greenwich, in 1945. We lived not far from the Royal Herbert, the Brook and the War Memorial Hospitals on Shooter's Hill Road. Sadly my father died in Seaman's Hospital, Greenwich.