Grange Road

Yesterday & Today
How we lived then & How we live now
fosney
Posts: 836
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2017 4:18 pm

Re: Grange Road

Postby fosney » Tue Feb 28, 2017 2:52 pm

Posted by rstupple2



Grange Road - The Solarium
When I was a child the Bermondsey Health Centre was known as the Solarium.
Opened in 1929 it was the first health centre of its kind in the UK and had a Solarium on the roof.
The front glass corners to the right of the building is where the dentist used to practice. I remember in the 1960s the Health Centre treated the population on mass with Polio jabs
Have you any experiences about visiting this building?

-fosney


Hi Joe I have very high arches in my feet, I had to go there in the early sixties to see if they could do anything Their Idea was to put my feet in to seperate foot bayhs and pass a small elelctric current though the baths to try to ease out the arches, needless to say it did no good. Earlier this year I had a injury to my foot, I told the young Doctor what had happened he looked horrified . From what I have understood the Solarium was the brain child of Doctor Salter, who belived that fresh air and sunlight was the answer to good health. he also got a lot of trees planted. I was told that of all the inner london Boroughs Bermondsey as more trees than any other. Before we had to put Mum and Dad in a home their GP practice was there.
Rick

fosney
Posts: 836
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2017 4:18 pm

Re: Grange Road

Postby fosney » Tue Feb 28, 2017 2:57 pm

Postedby bermondseygirl


Hi Fosney
Seeing the photo of the Solarium in Spa Road has brought back memories. My mother had pneumonia once. She was very ill. She had gone out on New Years Eve to a family party and walked home in the snow in her slippers on! She already had a cold but kept going as it was Christmas and she wanted to go to work to get her tips as she was a waitress. By the next day she was delirious with fever. Dad got in the Dr and he said she was too ill to move to hospital and for him to go to Cherry Garden Street to get a district nurse to give her a penicillian injection. Dad ran all the way from Earl Road to Cherry Garden (no car in those days). Luckily she got the injection within the hour which saved her life. Dad always pleased he knew Bermondsey well and could find Cherry Gardens quickly as had lived around there as a child. Mum was ill for weeks. She couldnt go to work and used all the tips she had got for Xmas to compensate. She always said in one hand and out the other regarding money. Afterwards she had to go to the Solarium in Spa Road for sunlight treatment on her lungs as the pneumonia had left her with plurisy. I had to have time off school to look after her. I think the Solarium was used by people years ago who had TB. Can remember going there with her. Also went there once to get my smallpox injection. They werent available when I was at school but by the time I was 18 there was an outbreak and they were vacinating large scale at the Solarium.


Bermondseygirl

bermondseyboy
Site Admin
Posts: 233
Joined: Tue Jan 10, 2017 12:37 pm

Re: Grange Road

Postby bermondseyboy » Tue Feb 28, 2017 2:59 pm

Bermondseygirl

Can't say iv'e seen anyone with a Tap on his head, he must have been a little simple as you say, or he was doing it for a laugh?
Perhaps he had water on the Brain? tee hee

Bermondseyboy
Steve

I dont Know all the Answers but I will do my best to find out.

bermondseyboy
Site Admin
Posts: 233
Joined: Tue Jan 10, 2017 12:37 pm

Re: Grange Road

Postby bermondseyboy » Tue Feb 28, 2017 3:04 pm

Joe

After swimming nearly every saturday down Bermondsey Baths, i managed to get a Varuca, quite painful for someone who wants to run about all day playing.
I went reluctantly to the Solarium. A very nice nurse started scrapping away the hard skin and putting drops on it, (i think it was for freezing it) this was over a fews days, until she then cut out the core which left a hole, this soon heeled over and no more verucas.

Bermondseyboy
Steve

I dont Know all the Answers but I will do my best to find out.

fosney
Posts: 836
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2017 4:18 pm

Re: Grange Road

Postby fosney » Tue Feb 28, 2017 3:12 pm

Posted by bermondseygal



Grange Road - The Solarium
When I was a child the Bermondsey Health Centre was known as the Solarium.
Opened in 1929 it was the first health centre of its kind in the UK and had a Solarium on the roof.
The front glass corners to the right of the building is where the dentist used to practice. I remember in the 1960s the Health Centre treated the population on mass with Polio jabs
Have you any experiences about visiting this building?

-fosney


Hi Fosney

I remember the Solarium very well.
In 1965, when I was seven years old, I had problems with ENT (Ears, Nose and Throat) and I had to get checked out at the Solarium who then sent me, and some other children from the LBS (London Borough of Southwark) to the German Hospital in Dalston to have our tonsils taken out.
I remember the Solarium vividly...there was a row of rooms with brown doors with round frosted glass windows in them and I had to go into one of the rooms, get undressed and put on a white gown.
The room had two doors, the door I entered through and another door at the other end of the room, and when it was my time to be examined by a doctor I went through the second door into a big consulting room which all the doors backed onto.


You can take the girl out of Bermondsey but you can't take Bermondsey out of the girl!

kiwi
Posts: 4833
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2017 2:53 am

Re: Grange Road

Postby kiwi » Wed Mar 01, 2017 4:24 am

SOLARIUM
Same as a few other people I can remember going to the Solarium for check-ups but it never worked out that way. You always finished up with someone poking in your mouth or somebody sticking a bloody great needle in you. I always felt worst coming out than when I went in.
Light Treatment at the Grange Road Health Centre (soleruim).jpg
Light Treatment at the Grange Road Health Centre (Solarium)
SOLARIUM.jpg
SOLARIUM
Grange Road Solarium, Public Health Centre. X.png
Promoting a new health centre for Grange Road, Bermondsey, 1920s.  X..png
Promoting a new health centre for Bermondsey, 1920s.
Last edited by kiwi on Mon Sep 20, 2021 10:06 am, edited 2 times in total.

kiwi
Posts: 4833
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2017 2:53 am

Re: Grange Road

Postby kiwi » Wed Mar 01, 2017 4:27 am

Bermondsey children enjoying the Mountain sunshine in Leysin, Sweden (circa 1933).
The Council was determined to take a more proactive stance, however and from 1924 the Council annually reserved six places in Dr Auguste Rollier's pioneering sun clinics in the Swiss Alps. From the first six patients from Bermondsey, five went on to make a full recovery and many local people benefited from the treatment over the years. I believe this was for TB which was normally treated at the Solarium
6487a92ff97640bea1b253940fa0d0f0_r.jpg
SOLARIUM (2).jpg
The council sought to replicate the Swiss methods in Bermondsey and set up Britain’s the first municipal Light Treatment Centre in Grange Road in 1926
Last edited by kiwi on Thu Apr 06, 2017 10:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

fosney
Posts: 836
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2017 4:18 pm

Re: Grange Road

Postby fosney » Fri Mar 03, 2017 11:00 am

Posted by caroleannefortroad


Hi,

You are quite right our doctor moved into the Solarium. There was also a dentist in there a bit of a butcher and not used to modern methods. You are also correct in saying that it was Dr Salter that had it built, He instigated the palnting of the tress in every road because of the oxygen they gave off. When he became MP there was a song that was sung
'vote vote vote for Dr Salter, kcik old rungey out the door'. Old Rungey referred to Lady Runge who was a conservative and got in because the voters became complacent and didn't go out to vote. Dr Salter was the Labour member.

fosney
Posts: 836
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2017 4:18 pm

Re: Grange Road

Postby fosney » Fri Mar 03, 2017 11:02 am

Posted bt bermondseygal

Hi Carole

Do you remember Runge Hall in Culling Road, Rotherhithe that was named after Lady Runge - Mrs Norah Cecelia Runge OBE?

You can take the girl out of Bermondsey but you can't take Bermondsey out of the girl!

fosney
Posts: 836
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2017 4:18 pm

Re: Grange Road

Postby fosney » Fri Mar 03, 2017 11:03 am

Posted by caroleannefort road


Hi Lesley,

Yes I do remember Runge Hall in Culling Road. My great grandma owned some houses in Culling Road along with a house in St Martin's Crescent and also the house in Grange Road


Return to “Buildings & Streets”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 82 guests