Devonshire Road Hospital.... soon to be ?

Image drawn by Brian Hughes

Devonshire Road was a community hospital that offered both inpatient and outpatient facilities to residents of Blackpool and its surrounding areas. The hospital housed the Fylde Coast's Dermatology Services and had a Renal Dialysis Unit, a Rehabilitation Ward, Dermatology Ward and a Clinical Skills Laboratory on site.

1891 Blackpool Isolation Hospital was opened on Devonshire Road on the 7th of July. This original sanatorium, behind the cemetery, was demolished in 1906 after being kept briefly for smallpox isolation. The new hospital was formally opened on the 26th of March on the opposite corner of Devonshire Road and Talbot Road. Still called Blackpool Sanatorium, it soon became known as Devonshire Road Infectious Diseases Hospital until 1954; locals knew it as “The Fever Hospital”. The hospital was finally demolished in 2007.

As some of you know I run the popular group https://www.facebook.com/groups/blackpoolspast/

which has been running for just over 9 years - I came accross the following information and have included names where I can.

Denys Barber  - a friend of mine and a member, he runs the popular free tours around Layton Cemetery, some historical and some rather 'Grisly' ! he had the following to say -   My understanding  is that Devonshire Road Hospital was built to replace the "Sanatorium " which had become surrounded by the ever expanding Layton Cemetery. The reason for the change of location was apparently because the residents at the Sanatorium started to think that they were on a one-way ticket!  Denys also added the following information about a gent who had passed many years ago which had a historical connection - 2nd aug 2016 - George Washington Williams died in Blackpool on this day in 1891, aged just 42. He was a veteran of three U.S. wars, and on leaving the Army went to University to study theology. He then became a Baptist Minister, and found time to write several books and establish a newspaper of which he eventually became the editor. 

An early Civil Rights activist, George Williams visited the Belgian Congo where he saw the local population virtually enslaved and very poorly treated. Registering his feelings in person to King Leopold he was banned from Belgium and its colonies for life. On a visit to England he contracted T.B. and pleurisy and was sent to Blackpool for treatment but sadly died after a few weeks. Rev. Samuel Pilling and the Blackpool Baptist congregation who had befriended George Williams during his short stay in Blackpool paid for his burial at Layton and the Afro-American community of the U.S.A. provided a stone for his grave in Layton Cemetery in 1976. (Google picture + denys )

Geoff Luxton Never knew of any kids who ventured into there because we always thought we would get death disease..

Denys  - Over 100 children died in a meningitis outbreak in the early 20th century and their little bodies piled into a pit in Layton Cemetery.

 Antony Mugford That's horrible. No separate funerals 

Denys Barber I've heard little about his appalling incident Antony. All I know is that such outbreaks were all too common in the early history of Blackpool. One of the main reasons must surely have been a desperate shortage of water in the town. It was only in July 1864 that the first piped water arrived and then only to a few houses. Residents were told to whitewash their properties once a year to control infectious diseases! Sadly in the case of the Children's Grave in Layton Cemetery there is no stone to record the incident and to my knowledge no record of the names of the children who lie there.

Moss Side Infectious Diseases Hospital (later known as Fylde Isolation Hospital) was opened on the 14th of April near Lytham, relieving pressure on Blackpool. Building was begun in June 1900, by the contractor S Wilson of St Anne’s. It was the first joint Infectious Diseases Hospital in Lancashire. The typhoid and diphtheria pavilion was nearest the road and had 4 wards – one for each sex for each disease. The scarlet fever pavilion was behind this and could take 11 patients of each sex. The nurses’ home and administration blocks were to the south east, together with various support services. There was a porter’s lodge at the main gates. 

 

From the NHS take-over in 1948, Moss Side dealt with long-term orthopaedic patients, with infectious cases being sent to Devonshire Road in Blackpool, and in later years the old scarlet fever ward was used to provide continuation beds for Victoria Hospital. In March 2013 Blackpool Council agreed for usage for the contractors working on the Talbot Gateway project. They say that parking will ease up the other car parks in the area, I am not going to state the obvious with car parks and the debate in the town thou! The land will be leased from the Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust for five years, with an option to pull out after two years, at an annual rent of £85,000. In 2017 - Temporary site for the work on the railway electrification project.

So fast forward to 2019 - Maple Grove Developments has completed the acquisition of a former hospital site in Blackpool for £1.05m. The plot was home to Devonshire Road hospital before it was decommissioned in 2007 and then demolished. Recently, it has been let to the council and used as a car park until the lease expired in 2016. It has been bought from Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust (LCFT).