Mothers' Hospital
The Mothers’ Hospital emerged from the work the Salvation Army carried out in providing refuge and shelter to those in need. They set up many homes across the country, including one at Ivy House, Mare Street, Hackney in 1884. Many of the women who sought shelter at Ivy House were pregnant, and in 1888 the Salvation Army decided to dedicate it to the confinement of unmarried mothers. This was the first such institution to provide maternity care for unmarried women; previous maternity hospitals tended to be reserved for married women.
Ivy House began a tradition of training nurses. Its first student midwife qualified in 1889 and 250 more followed over the next 18 years. During that time the Hospital expanded and bought new buildings, including a property in Springfield Road, Upper Clapton, which became a mother and baby home named Cotland. Eventually, the Salvation Army purchased some land on Lower Clapton Road for the express purpose of building a hospital for unmarried mothers. The foundation stone was laid in 1912 by one of Queen Victoria’s daughters, Princess Louise, and the Hospital officially opened in 1913. Initially designed to handle 600 births a year, it soon exceeded this and made various extensions over the years. It also upheld the teaching traditions begun at Ivy House and trained midwives to the standards of the London Obstetrical Society and the Central Midwives Board.
The Hospital produced annual reports to describe and publicise their work. The reports emphasised the importance of the Hospital raising funds for maintaining buildings, purchasing equipment and upholding the high standard of care in the face of increasing numbers of patients. The reports included stories of women who had been helped by the Hospital in order to encourage donors to give to the cause.
One of the major projects for which money was required was the reconstruction and extension scheme of the 1940s, for which an entire brochure was produced. The brochure includes a set of statistics about work at the Mothers' Hospital, Willersley Castle and Bragborough Hall (locations to which patients were evacuated during the Second World War), and the Salvation Army's associated district work. It also contains a 'Diamond Jubilee Retrospective' - a history of the Salvation Army's work with mothers since the formation of the first maternity home in Chelsea in 1885, covering both the hospital in Ivy House and the Mothers' Hospital.
The patients at the Hospital were often extremely grateful for the care they had received, and some got the opportunity to express that gratitude through the patient remarks books. As you can see from the comments shown here, the women who used the Hospital really appreciated the work carried out there.
The Mothers’ continued to carry out its work within the National Health Service, and was given special dispensation to retain members of the Salvation Army as a certain proportion of the staff, thus maintaining its individuality. It later belonged to the Hackney Group Hospital Management Committee and on 1 April 1974, the Group became part of the City and Hackney Health District. The Mothers' Hospital was closed in 1986, and all obstetric services were transferred to the Homerton Hospital.
To read the text in the text images click on the relevant PDF document
Download PDF of image 7 - A page from a book of patients’ remarks, all in glowing praise of the Hospital.
Download PDF of image 8 - A page from a book of patients’ remarks, all in glowing praise of the Hospital.
Download PDF of image 9 - A page from a book of patients’ remarks, all in glowing praise of the Hospital.
Images from the Mother's Hospital
An annual report, which contains stories of the kind of girls who needed the Hospital’s services. These include vulnerable girls who have been taken advantage of, as in the examples shown here.
