Hidden Henley

Along the Fair Mile going out of our town towards Oxford was The Smith Centre, which was previously Smith Hospital. A plaque used to say: “This hospital was the generous gift of the Rt. Hon. W H Smith MP with a view to the isolation and treatment of infectious sickness and the alleviation of suffering within this district. Opened October 6^th 1892. The ground on which it stands was presented by W. Dalziel Mackenzie Esq of Fawley Court”. W H Smith has now become T J Jones in our town and many other locations. The plaque was probably re-sited when this closed in 1988 and eventually became a business site, now demolished and being rebuilt again, but with a different purpose. My photo was taken a few weeks ago and so it will have progressed since then. There were considerable grounds on the site including a disused gravel pit and the substantial buildings were in four blocks. The original design seems to have been ahead of its time with its own laundry which used collected rainwater stored in an underground tank. There was a Smith Hospital School! It’s sobering to read that was also a mortuary on site. There was evidently no charge for hospitalisation or treatment for “working class” families. Other “categories” of patients were charged £5 & 5 shillings per week!

My late Aunt Edith from nearby Hambleden was taken as a girl with Scarlet Fever in the early part of the 20^th century by horse-drawn ambulance to stay here. She often talked about the experience and referred to her father visiting her – but he was only permitted to see her through the windows. Not only did she survive the illness but lived to her late nineties!

It became a psychiatric hospital between 1952-88 and then it lay open and abandoned, during which time (30 years ago!) I took some photos. I will post them after this…