Eying up Liverpool

In December 2024 Liverpool literally saved my life.

While I like the rejoinder "It's not all about you", and this photo blog I make is not all about me, it is about me in the sense that I make the blog about things I see and about places I go to. It is about me because I was there when the photos were taken, but hopefully the part that is "about me" is incidental to something larger that might interest everyone.

So here I am in Liverpool again for the fourth time in less than two years and serendipity finds me making several links in one small post that both tells a story about me and why I came to Liverpool, but also a much bigger story about an aspect of Liverpool's history of outstanding medical achievements.

Apart from the glaringly obvious title of this post, here is your second clue. This is the old Liverpool Eye and Ear Infirmary. I found this building by pure accident on Google maps while looking for somewhere to eat that was walkable from our hotel. We headed for the Georgian district where there are numerous pubs, bars, and restaurants, and only a hundred yards away from our destination was this stunning and proud structure from long ago.

The Liverpool Eye and Ear Infirmary was founded in August 1820 as the Liverpool Ophthalmic Infirmary on Wood Street before merging with an early ear institution and moving to a purpose-built Gothic-style building on Myrtle Street in 1879. The eye department later moved to the main Liverpool hospital leaving the ear nose and throat department here. Today it is a listed building and Historic England gives it a Grade 2 listing. It closed its doors as a hospital in 1978 when the operations that remained moved to The Royal Liverpool Hospital. It has now been repurposed as student accommodation.

The hospital was built by a charity called The Liverpool Eye and Ear Infirmary and back in January 1878 the governors and subscribers held their annual general meeting to discuss the fact that they needed to expand into new premises. They had just dealt with 10,000 cases in the previous year with 38,000 attendances and the Mayor used those figures as justification for how important their work was. They had raised £4000 toward the building but needed another £10,000. That total amounts to £926,000 in today's values.

"Mr. J. R. STOLTERFOHT, in moving the adoption of the report and balance-sheet, expressed the hope that during the year they would see the new building completed, but said that he could not understand how it was that money did not come in more plentifully, unless it was that, owing to its unobtrusive nature, the work of the charity passed unnoticed."

Liverpool Mercury - Thursday, 28 July 1881

THE LIVERPOOL EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY

The new buildings for the Liverpool Eye and Ear Infirmary erected in Myrtle-street are now completed, and will be opened formally in a few days. This institution had its origin in a building in Basnett-street, in the year 1820, for the treatment of affections of the eyes, and was subsequently removed to premises in Slater-street, and afterwards to the top of Mount-pleasant.........

......... The outdoor department is situated in the western wing of the building, and consists of a large waiting room capable of seating several hundred persons, with separate entrances for male and female patients, each patient receiving a numbered ticket on entering, which fixes the turn for passing through the glazed screens from waiting to consulting room, in which they see the doctors, and the latter, standing with their backs to an enormous plate-glass window facing due north, have the steady light therefrom direct in the eyes of their patients, for whom they prescribe at once in ordinary cases; the patient passing out through another door past the serving window of the dispensary (where their medicine is handed to them) and out into the side street without again entering the waiting room, so preventing all confusion......

A small room is provided close to the doctor's tables, in which any minor operation can be at once performed; and a special waiting room is provided, out of the consulting room, for those patients whose eyes require examination in what is called the "dark room". A private corridor connects the outdoor department with the indoor......

On the floors above, the west side of the building is devoted to female and the east to

male patients, each floor having two large and two private wards running north to south, and large dayrooms to the front, with nurses' rooms having direct control of each ward, and lifts in immediate connection with the kitchen department for the easy

supply of food.........

......the light both in wards and dayrooms is rendered a beautiful cool tone by the use of blue glass especially adapted to the purpose. The operation theatre is situated in the centre of the main building, and on the first floor, so that it may be easy of access from all parts of the building ; and, like the consulting room, it has a large plateglass window to the north. On one side of it there is a waiting room for patients, with precautions taken to prevent sound passing into it from the theatre, and on the other side there is a retiring room with direct access from the theatre, so that patients may be removed at once on completion of operation, and recover from the effects of the chloroform administered to them without keeping the doctors waiting to see other patients.

This hospital was state of the art.

Having made a quick recce of the available food in the area, we had spotted another imposing building with steps up to a front door and a promising looking menu. Barnacle Bar and Restaurant is in a building that also has some history. As we went up the steps I looked up above the door, and imagine my surprise, I couldn't believe it. The former School for the Blind was only a few doors away from the former eye hospital. This building pre-dates the nearby eye infirmary.

THE BARNACLE STORY

William ‘Bill’ Henry Askew left Sunderland and went to sea at 14, posted to HMS Conway before training as a Master Mariner with the Blue Star Line, based out of Liverpool. For forty years he sailed the world, bringing back recipes and culture from across the globe back to his home. His travels by ship earned him the nickname ‘Barnacle Bill’, and his generosity, love of stories, ‘grog’, and good food shaped everyone around him.

That spirit lives on in the heart of Liverpool’s evolving food culture, inspiring his son, Chef Paul Askew, and grandson, Harry Askew, who together opened Barnacle in Bill’s honour, with the goal of recreating the cuisines of Bill’s life at sea through fresh, seasonal ingredients from the region.

This isn't a food review or I would tell you what a sensational meal we had here.

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It was established as the Liverpool School for the Indigent Blind on Commutation Row by eight men, including the blind musician John Christie and anti-slavery writers William Roscoe and Edward Rushton in 1791. It was the first school globally, founded by a blind person, and the first to offer practical training, trades, and education to both blind adults and children. Displaced by the expansion of Lime Street Station, the school constructed a striking Greek neoclassical building on Hardman Street designed by Arthur Hill Holme, in 1851. It is also Grade 2 listed by Historic England.

A description of the sort of training students received was published in 1834 as witnessed on the previous site, but it gives valuable insight into life at the school. The primary aim of the institution was to offer the pupils opportunities for work and independence as adults.

Yorkshire Gazette - Saturday, 1 February 1834

....... we have taken the opportunity of a recent visit to Liverpool, of inspecting the Blind Asylum there, and it is impossible to witness anything more truly gratifying to a benevolent mind. The origin of this establishment was extremely humble. It commenced from instruction being afforded to a few blind women in a cellar: then a room in a more airy and commodious situation was taken; and ultimately the present splendid charity arose, as a lasting monument to the zeal and beneficence of its founders.

.....On entering, a long hall or passage, presents itself, having, on the right, a shop, in which the various articles made by the pupils are disposed of; and on the left, a work-room, where a number of females were employed, at the time we visited it, in sewing, knitting, and making baskets. Those who were sewing, threaded their own needles, by the use of their teeth and tongue, and one woman, in particular, displayed great dexterity, and sewed with much neatness. She was employed in making shirts, and we were shewn some silk reticules of her make, which would not have disgraced any young lady, in this age of female ingenuity. The other sempstresses were employed in coarser works .

....girls and boys, were occupied, in separate apartments, in making baskets, window-sash and curtain lines, bell-cord, hearth-rugs, tea-rugs, worsted carpeting, tarred and white bears (used for door-mats, &c.,) tarred and untarred lobby-cloths, wove, knit, and leather shoes, girth-web, and lamp wick; and ropes, twine, log-lines, fish- lines, &c., at the ropery, About 125 persons are now in the School ; and the ease, and apparent pleasure, with which they pursued their various avocations, were truly delightful to contemplate.

Besides these manual occupations, the pupils are taught reading, and those who have a capacity for it are instructed in music,-both vocal and instrumental. Every Tuesday and Friday are public-days, when the pupils sing and play,-and we are informed, that the number of visitors on these occasions is frequently very great; and that the pleasure derived from the musical performances is highly appreciated.

History of "Rope-Bears". Dating back to the late 18th and early 19th centuries, these doormats were often woven out of heavy marine-grade rope by blind artisans at specialized charities and workshops.

It is interesting that it describes the children being taught to read. It doesn't elaborate on this but the Braille system of reading was invented in France only ten years earlier, although it wasn't officially adopted into England until 1870. At this time blind children in England were taught to read using experimental embossed "line-type" systems—raised geometric characters, or altered Roman letters stamped into heavy paper.

I don't know what the former Blind School students would have made of an on-site bar, like the one there today.

This, by way of contrast, is the latest state of the art in eye hospitals, below, and why I am here now. Here is the place and here are the people who saved my life. This is the St. Paul's Eye Unit, in just one wing of a much larger Royal Liverpool University Hospital. Most people know that there are eye conditions that can cause loss of sight, and that is the main job of eye hospitals, but many people don't realise that there are also eye conditions that can kill. Ocular Melanoma is one of those.

When I travelled up to Liverpool in December 2024 I hadn't been told I had an ocular melanoma. It was only a month since I had been to my GP for something minor, and she had asked what the mark in my eye was. I was unaware I had a mark in my eye because it was below my lower lid. Less than 24 hours later I was at the optician and within two weeks I was at my local eye unit in Devon. After various tests the consultant said " What you have got is very rare and we can't treat you here, I am going to have to send you to Liverpool", and that was the start of this journey. At the time it seemed perfectly normal that I didn't ask any questions, I had no idea what it was or what the implications were. Which was probably a good thing. Two weeks later on a grey wet Monday morning I entered the St. Paul's Eye Unit for an examination and 24 hours later I was on an operating table. I explain more about the procedure here.

As my condition was discovered very early, by accident, I should add, it made it easier to treat. I don't know how things will pan out in the future but I am in good hands and my prospects seem good. This won't be my last Liverpool post.

St. Paul's provides a world-renowned ophthalmic service that goes back more than 150 years. The unit deals with the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases of the eye and visual system, not only to the community of Liverpool, but to regional, national and international referrals. The Ocular Oncology Centre was designated a Supra-Regional Service by the National Specialised Commissioning Group (NSCG) in London. The purpose of this organisation is to ensure that patients with rare conditions, such as ocular tumours, are given the highest possible standard of care by an experienced specialist team. University Hospitals of Liverpool

It's hard to believe that such an innocuous looking blob like this could kill you but I am only adding this photo taken by my GP, to help spread information that could save others too. My GP used my phone to take this so that I could see what she had seen. If you ever spot anything like this in the eye of someone you know please get them to take prompt action.

To end this piece I have just added this photo of another building which featured in my first visit. If you walk in a more or less direct line from the old eye infirmary to the new St. Paul's Eye Unit you walk past the famous Roman Catholic Cathedral, one of Liverpool's most iconic landmarks. It features in my first Liverpool post here.