Belfast City Hospital A Photographic History

down the years, with descriptive text. The result is a re-creation of the hospital which reveals much more than bare words. For instance, the enormous amount of space surrounding it is shown in the photograph including five acres ofcabbages. Onthe otherhand, the overcrowding ofthe childrens' wards is also shown even if we don't see them lying three in a bed! The conditions of the past were not all bad, ofcourse, and the forbidding black ofthe main hospital was balanced by the friendliness ofcoal fires in many ofthe wards. The book covers the range ofbuildings on the site, from the elegant little 1850 Porter' Lodge at the front to the twentieth century Ava building at the rear. It also has a few "outliers" such as the Intercepting Hospital on the West Twin Island for short-term accommodation of fever patients, and the Pavilion at Whiteabbey Hospital, reminding us that the Poor Law Guardians also had a responsibility for treating tuberculosis in the city of Belfast. Apart from the buildings, the photographs remind us of the social changes since the days when nurses could enjoy a game of tennis on the site or stir the Christmas pudding.