Tyne and Wear Archives Service
Record types
- Administrative
- 1926 - 1973
- General
- 1940 - 1971
- Nursing
- 1928 - 1946
- Admission
- 1926 - 1973
- Ephemera
- 1956 - 1964
Finding aids
- Finding aids
- Catalogue
- Location
- At Repository (AR)
Hospital
Babies Hospital
Last updated .
Important information
Information about this hospital might be outdated.
Details
- Previous Names
- West End Day Nursery (1914 - 1924)
- Babies Hospital and Mothercraft Centre (1925 reference)
- Address
- 34/35 Leazes Terrace, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, NE7 4LP
- Previous Locations
- 33 West Parade, off Westmoreland Road (1914 - 1940?)
- Blagdon Hall, Northumberland (1940 - 1948)
- Foundation Year
- 1916 (approximately)
- Status
- Closed (since 1974)
Administrative Authorities
- Regional Board (1948-1974)
- Provinces (Teaching)
- Management Committee (1948-1974)
- United Newcastle
- Regional Authority (1974-1982)
- Not Applicable
- Regional Authority (Post-1982)
- Not Applicable
- District Authority (1974-1982)
- Not Applicable
- District Authority (Post-1982)
- Not Applicable
- Pre-1974 County
- Northumberland
- Post-1974 County
- Not Applicable
- Post-1996 County
- Not applicable
Status
- Pre-1948
- Voluntary
- Post-1948
- NHS
Type
- Pre-1948
- Children
- Pre-1948 information
- C: Baby care.
- Post-1948
- Acute
Other information
The Babies Hospital, Newcastle, had its origins in a day nursery opened by Miss Greta Rowell, for mothers working in local munitions factories during the First World War. Known as the West End Day Nursery, it was based at 33 West Parade off Westmoreland Road. By 1923 there was a shift of emphasis from Day Nursery to Babies Nursing or Mothercraft Training Centre dealing in the main with babies with feeding problems. In 1924 Dr Spence, the Nursery's Honorary Consulting Physician, recommended closing the Nursery to daily children and to increase the number of beds for in-patients and in 1925 its name was changed to Babies Hospital and Mothercraft Centre. During the Second World War, the hospital, with the exception of out-patients, moved to Blagdon Hall, Northumberland. In 1943 Dr Spence became the first professor of paediatrics in England and this led to the removal of the out-patients department at West Parade to the children's clinic at the Royal victoria Infirmary. In 1944 the Babies Hospital was formally amalgamated with the Royal Victoria Infirmary and on 18 May 1948 the hospital at Leazes Terrace was opened. By 1971 paediatric surgical services in Newcastle had shifted to the Fleming Memorial Children's Hospital and in 1973 the official policy was to run down the Babies Hospital. It is now closed.