Outside the children's hospital, Shadwell

Nathaniel Heckford (1842–1871) was a

paediatrician Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until the ...

Victorian London During the 19th century, London grew enormously to become a global city of immense importance. It was the largest city in the world from about 1825, the world's largest port, and the heart of international finance and trade. Railways connecting ...

, who founded the East London Hospital for Children. He met his future wife, Sarah Goff, during the 1866 cholera epidemic in

Wapping Wapping () is a district in East London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Wapping's position, on the north bank of the River Thames, has given it a strong maritime character, which it retains through its riverside public houses and steps, ...

, where he first determined a need for a

children's hospital A children's hospital is a hospital that offers its services exclusively to infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In certain special cases, they may also treat adults. The number of children's hospitals proliferated in the 20th ...

in the East End of London. Heckford died of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...

(then known as consumption) at the age of 29. The hospital started in 1868 in a warehouse in

Ratcliff Ratcliff or Ratcliffe is a locality in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames between Limehouse (to the east), and Shadwell (to the west). The place name is no longer commonly used. History Etymolog ...

e, and moved after his death to Glamis Road,

Shadwell Shadwell is a district of East London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets , east of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the Thames between Wapping (to the west) and Ratcliff (to the east). This riverside location has mea ...

. It was the first London hospital for children under two years of age. It was described in some detail by

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

in two pieces called 'A Small Star in the East' and 'On An Amateur Beat' published in '' The Uncommercial Traveller''. In 1932 it was renamed the Princess Elizabeth of York Hospital for Children. A decade later, it amalgamated with the Queen's Hospital for Children, which had been founded in 1867 as the Dispensary for Women and Children. The newly merged institution was called Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children until its closure in 1963. Heckford Street, off the east end of The Highway, commemorates Dr. Heckford. Created in the early 21st century, it is a small business park, mostly occupied by electrical and building trades.

Sources

"East London Hospital for Children" by V.A.J. Swain
(PDF file—contains artist's rendering of the East London Hospital around 1900)
Portrait of Dr. Heckford

External links

* *Charles Dicken'
Small Star in the East''
(The description of the Children's Hospital begins on page 416.) *Charles Dickens
An Amateur Beat''
(The Children's Hospital is described on pages 281–2.) 1842 births 1871 deaths 19th-century English medical doctors 19th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in England {{UK-med-bio-stub