Building    From 1749  To /5/1913

British Lying-in Hospital

Categories: Medicine

Initially called the Lying-In Hospital for Married Women. ( 'Lying-in' is an old term for childbirth).  By the beginning of the 20th century it was experiencing financial difficulties which led to its eventual closure.

There is some confusion over where this hospital was originally opened: Brownlow Street certainly, but not the one now in Holborn, which a number of sources give. In the 1700s there was a Brownlow Street near Long Acre - the street now named Betterton Street, just one block away from the Endell Street plaque.

At the picture source, the Wellcome Collection, the text in the image makes the address clear but the text and description provided by the archive is confusing.  As ever, the Lost Hospitals of London is an excellent source for reliable information and we quote: "In 1849 it moved to a larger purpose-built building in Endell Street {with the plaque}, the old building having been condemned by the District Surveyor." 

Wikipedia has Stowe's 1720 map that shows Brownlow Street (now Betterton Street), 

Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk

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This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
British Lying-in Hospital

Commemorated ati

Rosalind Paget and Zepherina Veitch

The plaque gives 1739 as the foundation date but sources give 1749.

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