Crumpsall Hospital

Crumpsall was the poor law hospital of the Manchester Union. It opened in 1876, next to the Manchester workhouse, Park House, which had opened in 1855. Until this time, the hospital work of the Manchester Union had been carried on at the original workhouse in New Bridge Street in central Manchester, which dated to 1792. John Pickstone says of the Old Manchester Workhouse that it was 'perhaps the largest hospital in the country' (Pickstone, p. 124). Crumpsall Institution Infirmary was a very large general hospital, and frequently suffered from overcrowding. When the Unions of Manchester, Chorlton and Prestwich merged in 1915, Crumpsall and Delaunays Hospital merged. Delaunays had been opened in 1869 by the Prestwich Board of Guardians as a workhouse and hospital, and was designed by Thomas Worthington. After amalgamating with Crumpsall it became known as Crumpsall Infirmary Annexe and was used mainly for incontinent and chronically sick patients. In November 1917 there was a fire in a single storey timber annex in which fifteen inmates died. About half of the Hospital was used during the First World War for casualties. A number of improvements were made after the war; a new nurses home and a lecture hall were built in 1919. After 1920, patients could enter private blocks where they could be treated by their general practitioner. 1927 saw the building of a new dispensary and a new block with operating theatres, x-ray, dental and recovery rooms. In 1930, the running of the hospital was taken over by Manchester Corporation. Crumpsall joined the NHS in 1948 and was formally recognised by the University as a teaching hospital in 1952. Crumpsall and Delauneys merged with Springfield Hospital to form the North Manchester General Hospital in 1975.

Note: the Medical Collection does not include any official records of this hospital. This includes any records relating to patient admissions, treatment and discharge. The Hospital's archives are held by Manchester Archives and Local Studies, Central Library, St. Peter's Square, Manchester (ref: M326).

E. Lawson, A Short History of Delaunays Hospital 1869-1969, 1969.