Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Can anyone remember the frieze in the dayroom of the infirmary? Has anyone any information about it?

I remember it. Most entertaining but cannot remember the subject unless it was a country scene.Were windmills pictured?

I only remember the billiard table, the knackered old piano, the hissing of the gas fire and the slight feeling of guilt at being able to watch TV during the day.

But I wish I were back there right now. I had a lot of time for the upper floors of the infirmary and had way too little opportunity to inspect them. After all, if you were well enough to qualify to be in the dayroom, you'd almost certainly be out on your arse within 24 hours.

It occurs to me that I liked that dayroom so much, not to mention the library next door to it, that I was quite appalled during one flu epidemic to find that when I improved significantly, instead of being allowed to get up and use the dayroom, I was consigned to Lamb A of all places, where one of the dormitories was being used as a temporary overspill ward. I feel cheated to this very day.

This leads me to further memories as I spent almost one term living in! There was a European refugee acting as a cleaner-I think she was German,who had been an opera singer.She had a penchant for demonstrating her vocal powers to any boy in range,but sadly her mellifluous tones had deserted her and she was left with the most embarrassing , overstated, vibrato. This would be c 1949/50.

1949/50?

On the plus side, you had no TV to feel guilty about. On the minus side, you probably spent all day fighting off the ghostly Houseyboy who roamed the Infirmary corridors.

All my time in the Infirmary was because of styes. As a result I spent my entire time with my head, covered with a towel, over a basin of hot water with Friar's Balsam in it. Don't remember anything about the decorations.

Oh the joys of Dr 'Tommy' Scotts rounds !

Returning to the frieze in the dayroom: does the fact that we appear to know nothing about it mean that nobody has yet published a proper book about Christ's Hospital in which all the buildings are described and explained in detail? If not, it's flamin' well time that someone did, before all the background details are forgotten (if they haven't already been). Step forward, somebody or other. Cometh the hour, cometh the man?

I vaguely remember the day room and wards in general in the 'sicker', Spoony, but I honestly don't remember any frieze.

Maybe I was too ill to notice !!

Come to that, how did the Infirmary come to be built as it was? It's a completely different style from the rest of the (pre-1964) school -- different bricks and presumably different architect. When was it built, actually?

I may be wrong, but I seem to remember back in the distant past, being told it was a later addition to the school with the appointment of a new school medical officer.

Page93 of Ken Mansell's "C H in the Victorian era " gives a map diagram of the Buildings of CH from 1902 which shows the
Infirmary in the same shade of colouring as the House Blocks and other main buildings. No doubt he will be able to confirm this. It also shows the site of the Sanatorium nearby.

Kit Bartlett wrote:Page93 of Ken Mansell's "C H in the Victorian era " gives a map diagram of the Buildings of CH from 1902 which shows the
Infirmary in the same shade of colouring as the House Blocks and other main buildings. No doubt he will be able to confirm this. It also shows the site of the Sanatorium nearby.

I was wondering about the building I found on this 6 inch to 1 mile map from 1909. Both an Infirmary and a separate Sanatorium are featured, although the contemporary map overlay shows that site of the latter was repurposed (and before my time 75-82). http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=18 ... layers=168

stage crew wrote:

Kit Bartlett wrote:Page93 of Ken Mansell's "C H in the Victorian era " gives a map diagram of the Buildings of CH from 1902 which shows the
Infirmary in the same shade of colouring as the House Blocks and other main buildings. No doubt he will be able to confirm this. It also shows the site of the Sanatorium nearby.

I was wondering about the building I found on this 6 inch to 1 mile map from 1909. Both an Infirmary and a separate Sanatorium are featured, although the contemporary map overlay shows that site of the latter was repurposed (and before my time 75-82). http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=18 ... layers=168

Before the Science building apparently. Apart from that not too different than the fifties.

stage crew wrote: I was wondering about the building I found on this 6 inch to 1 mile map from 1909. Both an Infirmary and a separate Sanatorium are featured, although the contemporary map overlay shows that site of the latter was repurposed (and before my time 75-82). http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=18 ... layers=168

In 1960 there was a nurses' accommodation house just beside / behing the sicker. Went there once but it was late in the evening so I don't remember the exact layout