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| West Ham Sanatorium - Langdon Hills |
| Dry Street |
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Location: Dry Street Photographer: Unknown Year of photo: c.1929-40 Copyright: N/A. Source: Marion Hancock Comments: The former farmhouse, which provided living quarters for the hospital Matron and Nursing Sisters. |
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Location: Dry Street Photographer: Unknown Year of photo: c.1929-40 Copyright: N/A. Source: Marion Hancock Comments: Taken out in the orchard, this photograph is possibly of Matron Noble and two Nursing Sisters, the taller of which could be Sister Holmes. |
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Location: Dry Street Photographer: Unknown Year of photo: c.1929-40 Copyright: N/A. Source: Marion Hancock Comments: A group of boys gathered together for an informal photograph. |
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Location: Dry Street Photographer: Unknown Year of photo: c.1929-40 Copyright: N/A. Source: Marion Hancock Comments: Taken out in the grounds, a group of 8 girls smile for the camera. |
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Location: Dry Street Photographer: Unknown Year of photo: c.1929-40 Copyright: N/A. Source: Marion Hancock Comments: View taken from the girls' end. Some members of staff can be seen standing outside the central administration area. The outside doors were kept open whenever possible and beds were often placed under the verandah. |
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Location: Dry Street Photographer: Unknown Year of photo: c.1929-40 Copyright: N/A. Source: Marion Hancock Comments: This building, thought to be the schoolroom, stood between the main block and the Nurses' home. The portico of the central admin area can be made out in the background. |
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Location: Dry Street Photographer: Unknown Year of photo: c.1929-40 Copyright: N/A. Source: Marion Hancock Comments: |
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Location: Dry Street Photographer: Ray Beer Year of photo: 17/10/2006 Copyright: Ray Beer Source: Ray Beer Comments: Original opening plaque still in place 79 years later. |
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Location: Dry Street Photographer: Ray Beer Year of photo: 17/10/2006 Copyright: Ray Beer Source: Ray Beer Comments: Dry Street entrance and driveway. |
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Location: Dry Street Photographer: Ray Beer Year of photo: 17/10/2006 Copyright: Ray Beer Source: Ray Beer Comments: Wootton House seen in 2006, which once provided living quarters for the Matron and Nursing Sisters. |
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Location: Dry Street Photographer: Ray Beer Year of photo: 17/10/2006 Copyright: Ray Beer Source: Ray Beer Comments: Looking towards the girls' ward accommodation block in October 2006. |
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Location: Dry Street Photographer: Ray Beer Year of photo: 17/10/2006 Copyright: Ray Beer Source: Ray Beer Comments: The boys' ward accommodation block. |
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Location: Dry Street Photographer: Ray Beer Year of photo: 17/10/2006 Copyright: Ray Beer Source: Ray Beer Comments: Sanatorium plan layout. |
| West Ham Sanatorium - Langdon Hills |
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A purpose-built Sanatorium for children suffering from
tuberculosis opened on 27th October, 1927 at Dry Street in Langdon Hills. The opening ceremony
was performed by the Mayor of West Ham, Alderman Ernest Reed, whose council had purchased the
100 acre site including a large farm house for £12,800. A number of locations were considered
including Goldsmith's, a large country residence in South Hill, but this was acquired by another
party.Its construction was one of a number of initiatives carried out by the West Ham Borough Council aimed at combating the scourge of Tuberculosis - often shortened to TB - a communicable disease that most frequently affects the lungs, and much prevalent at that time. The borough's own Tuberculosis Dispensary had opened in Balaam Street, Plaistow, in 1914 for the diagnosis of suspected cases, and it was no doubt that it was from there that many of the Langdon Hills patients had been referred. Various buildings, including a schoolroom and accommodation blocks, were erected in the grounds - which stand 278 feet above sea level overlooking the Thames valley - and the farm house was adapted to provide living quarters for the matron and nursing sisters. Around forty children of mixed sex up to the age of 16 were accommodated, with intake mainly coming from the East end of London. The West Ham Borough Council had earlier in 1912 converted their smallpox hospital at Dagenham (opened in 1899 at Rookery Farm, Leys Avenue) into a sanatorium (known as West Ham Sanatorium and later Dagenham Sanatorium*), and that, possibly from the time of the Langdon Hills opening, was used for adult intake only. From the time of opening Dr. George Mayberry (24/07/1883- 21/11/1961) was the Medical Superintendent at both Langdon Hills and the West Ham Sanatorium at Dagenham until his retirement in 1949. For the patients there was no typical length of confinement which varied from months to a number of years. When the second world war began in 1939 the hospital remained open throughout the conflict and an air-raid shelter and blast proofing walls were constructed. In July 1948 the National Health Service was introduced and a South East Essex Hospital Management Committee formed to serve the then Urban Districts of Billericay and Thurrock. The sanatorium was subsequently passed over to their control and they then had the buildings converted for adult male patients to commence in 1950. A year earlier on 1st April 1949 the school, which had become known as Langdon Hills Sanatorium School and administered by West Ham Education Committee**, was taken over by Essex County Council until it closed on 16th December, 1949 with the remaining pupils transferred to Highwood School in Brentwood, Essex. Light entertainment on the ward was occasionally provided through an extension loudspeaker where the radio programmes of the day would entertain the patients. In February 1955 the adult patients were even treated to a performance of the popular pantomine "Puss in Boots", courtesy of the Langdon Youth Centre Concert Group. The sanatorium continued as a TB hospital until closure in December 1957. Following closure the grounds were considered as a possible site for the new Basildon Hospital but this was not to be and by the early 1960s the buildings had found a new use - this time for dogs - as the privately owned Wootton House Boarding Kennels. A service it still provides today in surroundings (as of 2007) that are little changed from when it was a hospital. In 1964 much of the grounds were purchased by Essex County Council for conservation. For an insiders account of what it was like to be a patient there, David Alexander's 'A Memoir of Langdon Hills Sanatorium' is an enlightening and revealing read. *The former Dagenham Sanatorium at Leys Road, Rainham Road South became NHS run from 1948 until closure in 1965. It then became Dagenham Hospital until that too closed in 1996 and the site became derelict before being transformed in 2006 into an extension of the Beam Valley parkland open space. **The West Ham Education Committee was established in 1903 following the abolition of the West Ham School Board resulting from the Education Act 1902 which abolished all School Boards set up by the previous Elementary Education Act 1870. Text written 2006 with revisions 2006,2007,2010. Copyright © 2006-2010, B. Cox - Basildon History Online. All rights reserved. |
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