KIRKDALE HOMES, LIVERPOOL

[MaryA]

My grandmother was in the Kirkdale Homes in the 1960/70's and it was very much a geriatric ward.

The Liverpool Library Service at its temporary location within The World Museum will be open from the 1st September 2010.

The opening times are 10am till 5pm. It has been clearly marked as you enter the World Mureum by green footsteps on the floor going up the stairs to the Horseshoe Gallery. Those using the lifts the Horseshoe Gallery is on the second Floor.

The system for using the machines is on a first come first served basis. There will be no telephone bookings.

Archives which are in original form will not be available till October.

Watch this for updates

[Eileencrimond17]

Just found this discussion when I googled "241 Westminster Road"... and thought this information might help:

I have in front of me the death certificate of my father-in-law's stepfather who died at Kirkdale Homes in 1960. The death certificate lists both the Kirkdale Homes address, and his wife's (= my husband's grandmother's) address in Huyton. We understand that he suffered from dementia and that his wife was no longer able to look after him.

So - it would appear that it was NOT a place for homeless people. Perhaps people were listed as "of no fixed abode" if they had no other home?

Thank you for this Angelika--I have a feeling that by this time my grandfather was homeless--was talking about this on Wed with cousins & we wondered if he had lived in some sort of hostel and gone into the K homes when ill--my younger cousin thinks  she remembers  her mother visiting  him there because he was very ill--we assume that granny must have been informed as next of kin even though he left her many years before-there was never any divorce.
I understand that K homes changed the name to Westninster homes for elderly & infirm or similar, but no doubt people still used the Kirkdale Homes name!

[Eileencrimond17]

My grandmother was in the Kirkdale Homes in the 1960/70's and it was very much a geriatric ward.

The Liverpool Library Service at its temporary location within The World Museum will be open from the 1st September 2010.

The opening times are 10am till 5pm. It has been clearly marked as you enter the World Mureum by green footsteps on the floor going up the stairs to the Horseshoe Gallery. Those using the lifts the Horseshoe Gallery is on the second Floor.

The system for using the machines is on a first come first served basis. There will be no telephone bookings.

Archives which are in original form will not be available till October.

Watch this for updates
quote]
Thank you for this information--I just thought that there would be no access to records for a while--so encouraging news

[garstonite]

I received my grandfather's  death certificate this morning. The  address where he died was given as 241 Westminster Road, Liverpool 4. He was descibed as being " of no fixed abode"--aged 77 descibed as a labourer.The informant  was  "occupier"

A cousin thought that he was living in the Kirkdale Homes at one point--we weren't sure if this was for "old people" or for sick people.
However going by the term "no fixed abode" it sounds as though it could be a lodging house where people went to at night but had to leave the next day?

Can anybody give me any information please?

Thank you

Don`t laugh...being a mad Evertonian I have walked down that road so many times...could 241 be The Police Station ?....the police station was closed down - turned into a pub called The Old Bill...allan

[garstonite]

I should explain ....I just thought maybe he died in The Police Station....he may have been found by a Policeman and was in a bad way / taken there and died  there...hence ...the statement ..informer  occupier ..ie the police ?...it may be an explanation...allan

[Eileencrimond17]

I should explain ....I just thought maybe he died in The Police Station....he may have been found by a Policeman and was in a bad way / taken there and died  there...hence ...the statement ..informer  occupier ..ie the police ?...it may be an explanation...allan

Now there's a thought!!
(Incidentally my family are long time Evertonians over several generations)

However--if my cousin was correct & she isn't 100% so, someone in the family was notified that my g father  was in the Kirkdale Homes as he was seriously ill. The informant was named--Geo Armstrong--no occupation given. I can remember that some of the "whispers" were about my dad going or not going to see him & he eventually  went from what my mother said years later--however--I didn't know where dad  went & assumed as somehow I gathered that G father was ill that  he was in hospital. Nobody seems to know where he was buried.
Think I will google the Dr's name

[HarrysGirl2]

Hello,

If it helps, my grandfather died at Westminster House in 1949.  So, I've been down this road & asked all the same question you're asking now.  I found the following info:

Westminster House was originally the Kirkdale Industrial Schools for children from Liverpool Workhouse. It was later converted into an old people's home. It closed in March 1968. The newspaper of the time listed it as "the largest old people's home in the country" It was run by Liverpool Health Committee.

Although Walton Hospital had a padded room in G Ward it was never used, certainly not after 1910, because lunatics (as they were called then) were transferred to Mill Road Hospital. By 1930 Mill Road closed that section and all mental patients sent to Smithdown Road. Belmont Road took female patients with senile dementia and Westminster House took the male patients with dementia.  So Westminster House was one of the very early homes for the aged with dementia & probably also generally elderly people who didn't have dementia, but had nobody to look after them & couldn't cope alone. God bless them it sounded awful. 

My grandfather's DC said the same: "No fixed abode"  This confused me, as when I got the Westminster House records from LRO (£20) it gave NOK as his daughter & he lived with his daughter before he was admitted to WH in 1944.  The records showed that over the 5 years until he died at WH, he was admitted & discharged about 4 times, staying with his daughter for anything from a few weeks to about 18 months.  So he did have a home to go to. 

I now know that this term of:  "No fixed abode" was put on a person's DC when that person was a permanent resident of an institution.  The informant who registered the death  "The Occupier" on the DC, would be a member of staff at WH.  Usually there was a person who did this job of registering deaths, it's the same at all hospitals.

The place of my grandfather's death was not given as Westminster House it actually said: Place of death: 241, Westminster Road, which I found was actually Westminster House.

They don't make it easy for us researchers do they!

Hope this Helps

HarrysGirl2

[Eileencrimond17]

Hello HarrysGirl2,

Thank you so much for taking the trouble to put this on here for me--I appreciate it very much & it does answer a few queries

I will pm you--Eileen

[oldbones]

The original records for Liverpool Kirkdale Homes which was situated at 241 Westminster Road are held at Liverpool. They will be available at the temporary City Library site in Sandhills. There is a 100 year closure on these records, so the only person who can retrieve the information is the research officer and there will be a charge.