If you are familiar with the BBC series Call the Midwife, you will know the importance of The Maternity Home, in the fictional location Kenilworth Road, East London. Like the series, which shows the maternity home as a preferable option to the often-squalid conditions of the surrounding slums, the real East End Maternity Hospital was founded to combat the problem of severe overcrowding and insanitary conditions in the Stepney area. A house, known as the ‘Mothers’ Lying-In Home’, was originally opened in Glamis Road in December 1884. The formation of the hospital was driven by Lady Beatrice Violet Greville (1842-1932), who wished to provide a place where poor married women could be helped during childbirth, free of charge. Lady Greville had previously been lady-in-waiting to Queen Victoria, and HRH Princess Frederica of Hanover became the first patron of the hospital, with Algernon William Fulke Greville, 2nd Baron Greville (1841-1909) its first president. The hospital would also be a place where midwives could be trained, with nurses to attend poor women in their own home if necessary.
The East End Mothers’ Home in c.1910
The hospital rapidly outgrew the house in Glamis Road, and in 1889 moved to 396 Commercial Road. The new site provided 13 beds, and an outpatient department. In 1903 the name was changed to the East End Mothers’ Lying-In-Home, and the site was gradually extended to incorporate the neighbouring 394 and later 398 Commercial Road. Given the conditions that mothers were living in, and the deprivation of the area, The East End Maternity Hospital (as it was then known by) was surprisingly successful in delivering babies safely, with low mortality rates for both mother and child. In 1926, 893 outpatients were attended, with no full-term baby dying. In the following year the Home cared for 2061 women, with only one death. The 1920s also saw further expansion to the site, with nos.384-392 Commercial Road purchased, previously occupied by the College of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge.
1916 OS map showing the ‘Mothers’ Home’ along Commercial Road
The Hospital’s Annual Reports give a glimpse into the work of the midwives and nurses on behalf of the women of Stepney, but also an insight into their living conditions. In 1928, the Lady Superintendent Margaret Anderson wrote:
‘The Social conditions are improved there is more employment for the men, but dock work is so uncertain, that the dole makes the surest income. Nevertheless, the independent, self-respecting man will starve rather than take what he has not earned, therefore the poor we have ever with us, also the overcrowded homes. Just think of a most respectable family of 7 in one back room, living, eating, washing, sleeping and doing the laundry in the same few inches. At night a bed upon chairs is put up for the boys and the girls sleep at the floor of the parents’ bed.’
Despite the poverty, Anderson’s reports indicate that the community looked after its own. This was particularly evident at Christmas, when a party was held for the children who each received a special present. The Committee provided cakes, sweets, plum puddings, and gifts of baby clothes which were much appreciated by the families. Dr Owen Lankester, Chairman of the East End Maternity Hospital, would also take on the role of Father Christmas, much to the amusement of the children.
The East End Maternity Hospital, 1932
During WWII the Hospital was evacuated to Hill Hall in Essex, and then to Tyringham House in Buckinghamshire. In September 1940 the building was damaged by incendiary bombs during an air raid. Services returned to London in early 1946, with work carried out to repair the damage to the ‘Blitzed’ top floor, which became the new quarters for the domestic staff.
Due to the diminishing size of the local population, the number of births in the district declined. The demand for beds therefore decreased, with mothers choosing to have their babies in hospital maternity wards. There was also a concern that a satisfactory obstetric service couldn’t be maintained due to the building’s isolation from a general hospital. As a result, the Hospital was forced to close in 1968. Despite its decline and closure, the legacy of the East End Maternity Hospital, and the care provided to the women of Stepney, endures.