On this day … 25 October 1809

On 25 October 1809, The Preston Dispensary opened on Fishergate funded by charitable donations to provide health care to the ‘sick and infirm poor’ of the town. The Preston historian Peter Whittle, writing in 1820, has left a good description of its early days, and of pre-NHS health care in the town.

There was also a House of Recovery near the old Trinity Church, which opened in 1813. In 1833, it closed when a new House of Recovery was opened on what was then Preston Moor, that building was later incorporated in the old Preston Royal Infirmary.

To gain access to these services, the patient had to have a recommendation from one of the subscribers to the charity that financed their operation. These were the rules, as recorded by Whittle:

‘Benefactors and annual subscribers, who have paid their donations and subscriptions, will be entitled to recommend proper objects of the charity, according to the following rule: the mayor for the time being to have the power of recommending five patients at one time upon the book; each resident clergyman, of every denomination, in the town of Preston, two patients at a time, over and above the recommendations they may be entitled to in respect of their benefactions or subscriptions, every subscriber two patients at a time, for each guinea of annual subscription, and every benefactor one patient at a time, for each five guineas benediction, over and above the number he or she may be entitled to recommend, in respect of his or her annual subscription.’

There was also a separate ladies’ charity, known as the ‘Lying in Charity’, which had its own room in the dispensary to provide care for pregnant women.

Peter Whittle also provided a description of the building, which backed on to Surgeon’s Court off Lune Street. It was one of the first properties in the town to be provided with gas lighting:

‘This noble edifice has a fine polished stone front, well lighted by eight eliptic and square windows, fronting Fishergate, and is palisaded, with two flights of steps going up to the main entrance from the street, ornamented with an elevated lamp, for the purpose of giving light, by gas, in the winter time, which considerably embellishes the front.

‘The inside is well planned for the purposes it was built for, consisting of a room for the medicines, with a room on the ground floor, and a kitchen below, for the matron, together with drawing and other rooms, so useful and essentially necessary. Upon the whole, it is an honour and a public ornament to the town, for such an edifice to be raised by the voluntary contributions of the wealthy inhabitants and others, for the purposes of charity and benevolence.’

And he provided statistics for its operation in 1819:

‘The number of patients admitted on the books is 1947; of these there have been cured 1464, relieved 107, declared incurable 0, dead 63, vaccinated 173, on the books 132,—total 1947.

‘It is a circumstance worthy of remark, that not a single patient has died at the House of Recovery during the past year. The report states the number admitted at 102, of which 99 have been discharged cured, and 3 now remain in the house, ending November, 1820.’

The dispensary was one of the main providers of health care to the poor in Preston until 1870, when the Preston Infirmary opened in Deepdale Road. The other providers of health care to the working class were the Friendly Societies, which in return for subscriptions from their members, paid for the services of a ‘panel doctor’.

Another Preston historian, Charles Hardwick, writing in 1857, was already calling for better services than the dispensary could deliver:

‘Notwithstanding the amount of relief furnished by this institution, it is still very desirable that Preston should ere long possess a large and commodious Infirmary, capable of meeting the requirements of its numerous and increasing population. Perhaps the example of the neighbouring borough of Blackburn may eventually serve to stimulate the benevolence of the wealthy inhabitants of Preston in this direction. From time to time some efforts have been made; but, as yet, without practical results.’

In 1871, the Preston Savings Bank bought the old Dispensary buildings, pulled them down and built a new bank on the site, which opened in 1872, although to judge by the photograph above, parts of the old buildings survived until demolition in 1963.

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Sources
Whittle’s History of Preston
Hardwick’s History of Preston