ROYAL SOUTHERN HOSPITAL

The Southern and Toxteth Hospital was opened on 17 January 1842 in Greenland Street with thirty beds. However, the demand for accommodation was so great that the number of beds was increased to sixty-five. It was decided to add another storey to the building. Much of the money needed for this work was raised by a concert given by Jenny Lind at the Royal Amphitheater in January 1849. The enlarged hospital reopened with accommodation for seventy more patients. At first, however, only eighty-six beds were in use. Not until after the Crimean War were the 100 beds necessary to qualify as a medical school in use.

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Despite numerous innovations the hospital was overcrowded so it was decided to build a new hospital in Caryl Street. The foundation stone was laid in October 1867 and the hospital was formally opened by H.R.H. Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, on 21 May 1872. By Permission of Queen Victoria the title of "Royal" was given to the hospital (its name having already been changed from the "Southern and Toxteth Hospital" to the "Southern Hospital" in 1857).

In July 1937 the Liverpool United Hospitals Act was passed. It amalgamated four Liverpool voluntary hospitals into a single body.

The Royal Infirmary

The David Lewis Northern

The Royal Southern

The Stanley Hospitals
 

In 1948 the governing body - The United Liverpool Hospitals - was established.

The Southern Hospital was evacuated to premises in the Fazakerley Hospital for Infectious Diseases in 1939, and did not return to Caryl Street until 1950. During the war the Caryl Street site was used by the Admiralty as a training school for merchant navy gunners and named H.M.S. Wellesley.

This Royal Southern Hospital was closed on the opening of the new Royal Liverpool Hospital in 1979.