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17

READING DIRECTOR?— 1919.

laundry, servants’ dormitories and dw ellings for private nurses: an
additional wing was added in 1911, comprising an eye theatre, children’s
ward and casualty ward. There is a Convalescent Fund for discharged
patients, administered by the board of m anagem ent: the hospital is
supported by voluntary contributions raised in the county, and has 264
beds.
The Helena Nursin g Homo, B row nlow road, opened in 1878, is in­
tended for poor ladies suffering from incurable maladies and needing care
and nursing, such as are in the later stages of illness, homeless and
without relations able to nurse or support them ; cases of infectious and
mental disorders are ineligible.
Patients pay in advance, and are
received in the first instance for three months. A ll applications fo T
admission must be made to the lady in charge, who, if eligible, w ill
furnish the applicant with copy of the rules, forms o f application and
forms of medical certificates required.
The different almshouses in Reading were some time since consolidated
under the approval of the Charity Commissioners ; the old houses were
then vacated and the almspeople removed to new buildings of red brick
with stone dressings in the Gothic style, on the south side of Castle street,
erected in 1864-65 from designs by M r. W illia m H enry W oodm an, archi­
tect ; these consist of two row s of houses on either side of a roadway,
each row being divided into four separate blo ck s; and they are available
in all for 32 inmates, either men or women, v i z . : — 16 for the general
charities and 16 for the church charities.
The charities for distribution in St. Giles’ parish are about £45
yearly ; St. Laurence, £281 yearly ; St. M ary, £56. The St. Laurence
charities are given mostly in small pensions for aged parishioners and
..umerous gifts of bread, groceiy, meat, flannel, calico and coals.
The Reading Municipal Church Charities produced in 1908 a gross
income of £2,343 10s. 7d.
This sum is largely used for educational
.purposes and for the fo llo w in g :— Apprentice premiums, £ 2 1 0 ; alms
persons and pensions, £ 2 53 ; maid servants’ gifts, £ 1 0 0 ; clothing
children of Sunday schools, £100.
The General Municipal Charities amount to £1,086 y early ; Simeon’s
charity of £1,000, ip Consols, the interest of which is now £25 yearly,
of which £20 is paid to the Queen Victoria Institute for nursing the
sick poor of the town.
The old institution for the Parish of Reading, situated in the Oxford
road was begun in A pril, 1866,'und occupied in June, 1867: it is a
22“ “lnS rf local red brick, in the Elizabethan style, designed b y Mr.
W . H . Woodm an, architect, of Reading, and was erected at a total cost
of about £8,100. I t has since been extended and remodelled b y the
erection of new buildings at a cost of nearly £30,000, from plans by
Messrs. C. Smith and Son and M r. J. Greenaway, architects, of Reading,
and is practically a new institution. The old building accommodated
600 inmates, the new buidm gs provide for 500; alterations, which
include the addition of a new aged and infirm block and phthisical
quarters, were made m 1911 and have increased the accommodation to 660
Ih e accommodation is of the usual character, and includes hospital witli
100 beds, detached nurses’ home, imbecile block, administrative bu ildm *
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