CHARITIES
The earliest Liverpool charities,
apart from the grammar school, (fn. 1) were
the almshouses. (fn. 2) In 1684 twelve
almshouses were built by David Poole near the bottom
of Dale Street; in 1692 Dr. Silvester Richmond
founded a small group of almshouses for sailors'
widows in Shaw's Brow; in 1706 Richard Warbrick
established another small group, also for sailors'
widows, in Hanover Street. Successive small gifts
during the 18th century, amounting in all to over
£2,500, increased the endowment. In 1786 the
almshouses were consolidated and removed to their
present site in Arrad Street (Hope Street). They are
administered in part by the corporation, in part by
the rector, in part by trustees.
In 1708 the Bluecoat Hospital was founded by the
Rev. R. Styth, one of the rectors, and by Bryan
Blundell, master mariner, as a day school for fifty
poor boys, on a site granted by the corporation in
School Lane. (fn. 3) Blundell, by liberal gifts and assiduous collection, raised sufficient funds for the erection
of a permanent building where they could be housed.
The graceful and dignified building, still standing,
was begun in 1714 and completed in 1718. The
number of inmates has been successively increased;
there are now 250 boys and 100 girls. In 1905
the school was removed to a spacious and handsome
new building on open ground in Wavertree. The
Bluecoat Hospital ranks as the premier charity of the
city, and has always received the warm support of
Liverpool merchants.
One hundred and twenty-eight distinct charitable
institutions now in existence are enumerated by the
Charity Organization Society. (fn. 4) They cannot all be
enumerated, and it will be convenient to group them.
i. Medical Charities.—The Royal Infirmary, which
is the second oldest medical charity in the north of
England, was instituted in 1745. Its first building
was on the site of St. George's Hall, and was opened
in 1749. In 1824 it was removed to Pembroke
Place, and it was again rebuilt in 1890. From 1792
to 1879 a lunatic asylum was connected with it; it
also maintained a lock hospital; and in 1860 it instituted, under the guidance of William Rathbone, (fn. 5) a
nurses' home which formed the basis of the first
English experiment in district nursing. In 1834 a
medical school was established at the infirmary; it
has since developed into the medical faculty of the
university. The other general hospitals are the
Northern, instituted in 1834, rebuilt by aid of a grant
from the David Lewis fund in 1896–7, whence it is
now known as the David Lewis Northern Hospital;
the Royal Southern Hospital, instituted in 1814 and
rebuilt in 1872, which provides clinical teaching for
the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine; and the
Stanley Hospital, established in 1867. These three
hospitals, together with some of the special hospitals,
unite to form the United Hospitals Clinical School
in connexion with the medical faculty of the university. There is also a homeopathic hospital,
opened in 1887. In 1778 a dispensary was opened
in John Street, (fn. 6) eight years after the opening of the
first English dispensary in London. There are now
three dispensaries, for the north, south, and east of
the city. The special hospitals, in the order of their
foundation, are:—the Ladies' Charity (founded in
1796; Lying-in Hospital opened 1841); the Eye
and Ear Infirmary (fn. 7) (Eye 1820, Ear 1839); the
St. George's Skin Hospital (1842); the Children's
Infirmary (instituted in 1851, rebuilt in 1905–7);
the Dental Hospital (1860); the Cancer Hospital
(1862); the Consumption Hospital (1863, rebuilt
1904), to which is attached a fine sanatorium in
Delamere Forest, founded in 1901; the Liverpool
Convalescent Institution at Woolton (1873); the
Hospital for Women (1883); the Hospital for
Diseases of the Throat, Nose, and Ear (1884); the
Home for Epileptics (1887); the County Hospital
for Children; the Home for Female Incurables; and
the Vergmont Institution for Female Inebriates. To
the same group belongs the District Nursing Association, in Prince's Road, founded by Mr. William
Rathbone in 1862, the first of its kind in England.
The income of these charities from endowments and
subscriptions amounted in 1906 to more than
£80,000. But in addition to these voluntary hospitals the corporation maintains six hospitals for
infectious diseases, with 881 beds; and the select
vestry not only maintains a workhouse infirmary, but
also, in conjunction with the Toxteth and West
Derby Guardians, a consumption hospital at Heswall
on the Dee. The total number of beds available in
all the Liverpool hospitals is over 4,000.
For the blind, deaf, and dumb, there are:—The
School for the Indigent Blind (founded 1791), the
oldest institution of its kind, with 210 inmates, the
School for the Deaf and Dumb (1825) with 110
pupils; the Catholic Blind Asylum (1841) with 199
inmates; the Workshops and Home Teaching Society
for the Outdoor Blind (1859); the Adult Deaf and
Dumb Benevolent Society (1864); and the Home
for Blind Children (1874).
ii. Homes, Orphanages, &c., for Children.—In addition to the Bluecoat Hospital, already described, the
following institutions exist for the rescue of children:—Female Orphan Asylum (1840), Orphan
Asylum for boys (1850), Infant Orphan Asylum
(1858), each accommodating 150 inmates; the Sheltering Homes for Destitute Children (1872) annually
train and send out to Canada 250 children; the
Seamen's Orphan Institution, which is comparatively
well endowed, maintains 350 children; the Indefatigable training ship (1865), with which is connected a
sailing brigantine, prepares about 250 boys for the
mercantile marine; the Lancashire Navy League Seatraining Home does similar work; the Children's
Friend Society (1866) maintains a Boys' Home; the
Newsboys' Home takes in sixty-five street boys; and
there is a group of homes for training poor girls,
chiefly for domestic service, including the Magdalen
Institution (1855) for fifty girls; the Mission to
Friendless Girls (1862); the Preventive Homes
(1865) for forty-four girls; the Training Home for
Girls (1894) for thirty-two girls; and the Bencke
Home; while the Ladies' Association for the Care
and Training of Girls maintains four distinct homes.
There also exist a Children's Aid Society for clothing
poor children attending elementary schools, and a
Police-aided Clothing Association, which provides
clothes for children engaged in street-trading (who
are in Liverpool required to be registered) and with
the aid of the police prevents parents from selling the
clothes. The Liverpool Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Children has been at work for a longer
time than the National Society.
iii. Penitentiary Charities.—The Lancashire Female
Refuge (1823) maintains a home for women coming
out of prison, and is the oldest charity of its kind.
The Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society does the same
work on a more general plan. For fallen women
there are the Female Penitentiary (1811), the Benevolent Institution and Rescue Home (1839), the
Home of the Midnight Mission (1875), and the
Home of the Liverpool Rescue Society (1890).
iv. Homes for the Aged.—These include the Widows'
Home (1871); the Homes for Aged Mariners (1882),
including a large central building founded by Mr.
William Cliff, and seventeen detached cottages in the
grounds in which married couples may live; and the
Andrew Gibson Home for the widows of seamen
(1905).
v. Pension Charities.—These are numerous. The
Aged Merchant Seamen and Widows' Fund (1870)
gave 166 small pensions in 1906; the Governesses
Benevolent Institution (1849) distributes £900 per
annum in pensions; the Seamen's Pension Fund was
founded by Mr. T. H. Ismay in 1887 with a capital
of £20,000, to which Mrs. Ismay later added £10,000
for seamen's widows; the Shipbrokers' Benevolent
Society (1894) distributes annuities of not more than
£30 to old employees; and the Merchant Guild
administers ten distinct pension funds, chiefly for the
relief of distressed persons of the middle and upper
classes; it awarded 179 pensions in 1906, the largest
being of £42.
vi. Of Miscellaneous Charities there are too many to
be enumerated, but mention should be made of the
Sailors' Home, founded in 1852, which provides
cheap lodging and help for sailors when they are paid
off. And it should be noted that its continuous
existence, since in 1809 it was founded as the Society
for Preventing Wanton Cruelty to Brute Animals,
makes the local branch of the R.S.P.C.A. an older
body than the national institution. The David
Lewis Club and Hostel is an immense Rowton House
with a very handsome club in relation with it.