Dyke Road

Royal Alexandra Hospital for Sick Children

Photo by Tony Mould

Dedication plaque

Photo by Tony Mould

Royal Alexandra Hospital for Sick Children

Reproduced with permission from the Encyclopaedia of Brighton by Tim Carder, 1990

Please note that this text is an extract from a reference work written in 1990.  As a result, some of the content may not reflect recent research, changes and events.

b) ROYAL ALEXANDRA HOSPITAL for SICK CHILDREN : The Brighton Hospital for Sick Children was founded at 178 Western Road on 3 August 1868 by Dr R.P.B.Taafe. It expanded into an adjacent building in 1870, but in the same year the hospital moved to the disused ChurchHillSchool in Dyke Road where it was reopened with twenty beds on 14 July 1871 by the Bishop of Chichester. The present hospital building was erected on the site in 1880-1, a three-storey red-brick building which was opened on 21 July 1881 by Princess Alexandra. Decorated with terracotta mouldings, it was designed in Queen Anne style by Thomas Lainson at a cost of £10,500. The girls' ward was named the Taafe Ward in honour of the founder.
The Royal Alexandra has now been enlarged to 114 beds. A two-storey out-patient and isolation ward opened in 1904; the east wing was opened by the Duke and Duchess of York on 30 May 1928; and the Gillespie Wing was opened on 4 December 1945 by Princess Elizabeth, who also attended a concert at the Dome in aid of hospital funds. The Cawthorne Ward was converted in 1966 from the 1896 nurses' home. Since 1954 the patron has been the present Princess Alexandra. {24,98,115}

Any numerical cross-references in the text above refer to resources in the Sources and Bibliography section of the Encyclopaedia of Brighton by Tim Carder.