Victoria Nurses Home
In 1897, after a number of years of complaints about the inferior accommodation for nursing staff, the Earl of Radnor (then president of the Infirmary) launched a fund for a new nurses home in commemoration of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. The Victoria Home was completed in 1901 and became a home for nurses for decades to come.
Dated April 1897, are the detailed architect’s illustration (see image below) and plans for the new nurses home at Salisbury General Infirmary. Drawn by John Harding & Sons it is a lithographic reproduction by Frank Highman, Salisbury. In the achitect’s illustration you can see the hospital (left) and clock tower (right) in Fisherton Street in the background. The new nurses home sits alongside the River Avon, which you can see in the bottom right corner. This drawing was sent out from the Salisbury General Infirmary chairman Alfred Buckley and Salisbury Mayor Arthur Whitehead in May 1897 as part of a printed appeal brochure for fundraising in local parishes towards the building fund. The floor plans, also seen below, show the layout including bedroom accommodation as well as service areas, sitting rooms and study spaces.
The photographs below include images showing nurses sunbathing at the Victoria Nurses Home taken by photographer David Robson in the 1970s. These are likely to be from a set of promotional photographs to encourage interest in a nursing career at Salisbury. Two further images show the Victoria Nurses Home in the early 1990s, from across the River Avon, before the change of use of the Infirmary site.
