3-065-569 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

A Christmas-tree at the Middlesex Hospital, 1874. The patients, officers, and servants of the Middlesex Hospital [in London] were entertained on Christmas Eve with a pleasant social party, in which there was a Christmas-tree, bearing on its branches a variety of little gifts from ladies who feel an interest in the hospital. A numerous company of friends, both ladies and gentlemen, shared in the seasonable festivity upon this occasion...We wish particularly just now to recommend the Middlesex Hospital to public support, which it really wants: the annual subscriptions amount to not more than £2355, while the expenditure has been increased by some necessary works of improvement. The number of inmates received throughout the year is more than 2000, while the out-patients exceed 20,000, suffering from accidents or illnesses of various kinds. There are 310 beds for the accommodation of patients. A special department is that of the female cancer wards, in which thirty-five patients, afflicted with a disease almost hopeless of cure, find either some relief or a permanent refuge. The Middlesex Hospital was first established, in 1745, in Windmill-street, Tottenham-court-road, for sick and lame persons, and for lying-in married women'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.