Building    From 1835  To 1954

Receiving House

Categories: Medicine, Tragedy

In 1774 a group of London doctors, concerned at the number of people who were mistakenly being given up for dead, wanted to promote new techniques of resuscitation. They decided to concentrate on drownings and formed The Institution for Affording Immediate Relief to Persons Apparently Dead from Drowning, on 18 April 1774 at the Chapter Coffee House, St Pauls Churchyard. It quickly became The Humane Society and in 1787 with George III’s patronage it became the Royal Humane Society.

The Society introduced what we might nowadays call life-guards at sites popular with bathers or ice-skaters (who mostly could not swim). Once the guard spotted a drowning person he would go out in a boat, fish the drowner out the water and use the doctors’ techniques to restore life. The techniques involved hot water, baths and beds so a building was required and a number of these were established in the Westminster area near popular water sites.

At the Serpentine an old farmhouse was used at first, on land given by the King. In 1835 this was replaced, on the same site, with a properly equipped Receiving House, designed by J. B. Bunning (who also designed the Copenhagen Park clock tower). This was damaged by a bomb in WW2 and demolished in 1954.

All the information above comes from the picture source, the Royal Humane Society and Pure and Constant which also has a drawing and a plan of the building. That website credits “Saved from a Watery Grave” by Diana Coke, published by the Royal Humane Society (2000).

The Receiving House is the building to the left in the picture.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Receiving House

Commemorated ati

Receiving House

The 1969 film, A Touch of Love, shows a drinking fountain of this style in a ...

Read More

Other Subjects

Guy's John Fry Group

Guy's John Fry Group

This is possibly the same group of Guy's alumni who gather each October for a lunch to celebrate the life and work of Doctor John Fry.

Group, Community / Clubs, History, Medicine

1 memorial
W. G. Grace

W. G. Grace

Cricketer and medical practitioner. Born William Gilbert Grace at Clematis House, Downend, Mangotsfield, near Bristol. He started playing first-class cricket for Gloucestershire in 1864. Took his m...

Person, Medicine, Sport / Games, Canada, USA

4 memorials
James Parkinson

James Parkinson

Physician, geologist, political activist. Parkinson's disease is his. Born 1 Hoxton Square. Died at home, 3 Pleasant Row, Kingsland Road.

Person, Medicine, Politics & Administration, Science

1 memorial
C. A. Patten

C. A. Patten

Charles Arthur Patten was Medical Officer of Health for Ealing District Council in 1901. His post-nominal, LRCP Lon, indicates that he was a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians. Brief o...

Person, Medicine, Politics & Administration

1 memorial