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Brighton General Hospital

Brighton General Hospital, once Brighton Workhouse

Image of Brighton General Hospital originally taken for the Hanovernet website

Originally a workhouse

By Tim Carder

Built by George Maynard in 1865-7, the buildings now occupied by the Brighton General Hospital were administered by the Board of Guardians for the Parish of Brighton as a workhouse and infirmary until 1 April 1930 when their responsibilities passed to the public assistance committee of the county borough council. (They had been used as a hospital during the First World War, however.) The former Poor Law Institution became known as the Elm Grove Home, and on 1 November 1935 the Brighton Municipal Hospital was established in most of the buildings. (For details of the building's life prior to this time see "Brighton Workhouse at Elm Grove".)

Extending the hospital
More buildings were taken over in 1937, and in 1939-40 the new hospital took over the whole site, with the remaining occupants of the home evacuated to various establishments throughout the county. In May 1948 the establishment was renamed Brighton General Hospital, and was taken over the following month by the Ministry of Health following the National Health Service Act. It now has 495 beds, and is also the local teaching hospital with a post-graduate medical centre added in 1966. There are, however, plans to close the aging building if a new hospital is built at Hove.

The hospital today
The principal building, facing north-west above Elm Grove, is an impressive four-storey edifice with four gables and dolphin decorations, and has a frontage of 318 feet; the central clock tower has a cupola and weather-vane, and bears the date 1866. The large blocks facing Pankhurst Avenue were added in the 1890s. The adjacent ambulance station in Elm Grove was erected in 1951-2 on the site of the former workhouse vegetable garden. The Brighton County Borough Ambulance Service took over from the police accident ambulance service on 1 October 1948, but was itself taken over by East Sussex County Council in April 1974.

Reproduced with permission from 'The Encyclopaedia of Brighton' Tim Carder, 1990

This page was added on 22/03/2006.

Comments about this page

Thanks so much for this website. I've grown up in the states but was born at Brighton General Hospital. I was curious to see if I could find information on Brighton General, and I did! Thank you again.

By W.R.Good (Roy) (19/12/2003)

Many happy memories of my years as a student nurse at BGH in 1967-1970, married a local boy and now live in East Anglia.

By Pam Ralph (15/09/2004)

Great photo, I was born there in 1968, I have never been back...

By Sam (16/11/2004)

Having a nostalgic moment. Would love there to be a bit here on those 'alumni' who trained there in the sixties.

By Lesley Rowe (nee Turner & Attree) (25/05/2005)

I am finding this whole web site fascinating. I was born in the General and for the first sixteen years of my life lived just down the road in Ryde Road. I remember always been warned to be very careful of the road as the ambulances use to come out of the station opposite the top of our road, and then come speeding down, mind you the speed then is nothing compared to now. Another memory is of seeing all the down and outs queueing for a place and waiting for the doors to open, my mum never liked me walking up past there when they were waiting to be let in. For many years my uncle worked at the General, I think in the laundry, and a friend's Dad was a nurse there for years.

By Lynne Hughes (17/06/2005)

I was born in this hospital, and I remember that Fred Lennon (John Lennon`s dad) died here in 1976, could anyone tell me where in Brighton he used to live?

By Bridget Dawkins (13/07/2005)

I was born in Brighton General (August 1968). My Mum had to adopt me out but I have since found her. She feels so bad about having to let me go and said one of the nurses was cross with her for leaving her baby behind. We'd love to know if anyone remembers a young girl called Mareth who had a baby girl in 68, also named Mareth? Thanks for a wonderful website, can't believe how interesting it is.

By Mareth Millar/Winch (21/09/2005)

I was born in this hospital in 1984, I was the longest baby on record.

By Charlotte Greenwood (10/02/2006)

Good to see the picture. I was born in the hospital during December 1940 and lived for the war years with my grandparents at 182 Elm Grove. I had my tonsils out there in 1946 and remember the visits made by my school to deliver harvest festival produce to the hospital during those years. Happy memories!

By Robert C Munro (21/02/2006)

There is now a Brighton General Hospital SRNs' Association which holds bi-annual reunions, the next in 2007 and this Association has a web site which can be found at www.communigate.co.uk/sussex/brightongeneralsrn. The site contains much information about the BGH and lots and lots of photographs of the nurses,(from as early as 1947 up to the 60's) the wards, reunions, hospital Christmas celebrations and much more. My e-mail address is shown on the site so that any ex BGH SRN can contact me if they are interested in joining the Association there is no fee or charges of any kind. I simply add them to my address list and let them know when a reunion is to happen.

By Kenneth Ross (04/04/2006)

What a great site... thank you so much. I was born in BGH in 1967, and was a student nurse between BGH & the County betwen 1986 & 1990. I even staffed in my first post as an RGN in 1990 on what was then Dyke 1 ward, urology. Happy times. Now live in Yorkshire but have such fond memories of BGH!!!

By Chrissie Burton (23/04/2006)

I was born at the BGH on the 24th Dec 1935. I too have some happy memories of my time in the area. I lived around the hospital in my early years: Firle Rd and Ryde Rd. I now live in South Australia. This is a great site - I will be looking in from time to time.

By Eddie Patrick (03/02/2007)

My great-great-great grandmother gave birth to a son George William in the Brighton Workhouse in 1863; her name was Mary Ann Towner. When registering him, she could only put her mark, an 'X'. She was not married, and there was no name for the father. So very, very sad; I feel for her so much. It must have been awful for her. I was also born in the Brighton General in 1945, so was my son in 1963. I'm so glad I found this site, it has helped me very much with my ancestry, and the history itself is fantastic.
Thank you - it's now in my favourites.

By Carol Ann Adams (29/07/2007)

I was a student midwife at B.G.H. in 1962 and have great memories of my time there. After four years in Birmingham it was wonderful to live beside the sea. I still live beside the sea, though now on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. I found this site while reading about workhouses. I thought B.G.H. was once one; it was easy with your web page to confirm this. While working nights at B.G.H. we had to cross the gardens to the main building for our meal. One night on my way to dinner I discovered five or six homeless men sleeping in the Board/Meeting Room. I have a feeling the door was locked after that, though I do wonder if at that time there was still some sort of accommodation for the homeless?

By Kate (11/02/2008)

I was a pupil Npnurse at the hospital in 1976. Most of the trainees always wanted to go to the Sussex County - it being more modern. I loved it at B.G.H. as I could walk to work from Park Road Terrace by the Red Lion Pub.

By Edwina Zander nee Turner (26/03/2008)

Very late I know, but just found Bridgit Dawkins asking about John Lennon's father. I understand he was living opposite PrestonPark in a very nice flat. Hope that small piece of info helps a little.

By Jennifer Tonks (nee Smith) (26/11/2008)

I was born in the Brighton General in 1966, as was my Dad Ray Williams in 1944. One of my Great-great-great Grandfathers, William John Crossfield, a former naval man who'd served on HMS Odin in the second opium wars, and a life-long Brighton resident, sadly died there aged 77, when it was still Elm Grove Workhouse in 1914 (just months before the war).

By Steve Williams (04/03/2009)

When my gt gt grandfather Robert Ackerson Pelling died aged 74 in 1890, his widow, Elizabeth (nee Jackson), entered the workhouse where she died one year later at 71, 49 years later in 1940 I was born there.

By Ralph Packham (05/11/2009)

Hello Ralph, it would seem we are related as Robert and Elizabeth are my father's gt gt grandparents. We stem down through their 1861 son Walter and his wife Emily. Hello cousin.

By Naomi (03/12/2009)

Hi Jennifer. Thank you so much for the information about John Lennon's dad. I met John Lennon back in 1975 - I was only 9 but I still knew who he was.

By Bridget (11/12/2009)

Just had to add something to this page! I've lived in this area all my life and it wasn't until I started on the family tree that I really started to notice some of the things that have been around me all my life. My nan was admitted to the workhouse infirmary after she had a breakdown following the death of her husband in WW1 - she was left with 3 children and I guess it got too much. The children were sent to Warren Farm Industrial School(they never really talked much about it). Her second husband died at BGH in 1944. His dad died at the Kingston Workhouse infirmary after an accident in 1921. I'd love to know more about all this but don't know where to start. Does anyone know if there are any records accessible to the public?

Editor's note: If you post a question on our Message Board, it will be responded to by one of our local historians who may be able to help.

By Barbara Jones (08/01/2010)