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b.) Non-infectious and Accident Cases.—The efficient ambulance
service of the London County Council is available for cases of accident,
sudden illness and also for maternity cases. The ambulances of the
London County Council may also be utilized, on payment, for the removal
of non-infectious cases to hospitals or homes.
CLINICS AND TREAMENT CENTRES.
(a.) The Violet Melchett Infant Welfare Centre.—Chairman of
Council: Violet, Lady Melchett, D.B.E. Hon. Treasurers : Sir Algernon
Peyton, Bart, and Mrs. Hartnell ; Hon. Secretaries : Miss M. BowdenSmith
and the Hon. Diana Darling.
This Institution, controlled by a Voluntary Council with headquarters
in Wellington Street, adjoining the Town Hall, was completed in February,
1931, and formally opened by H.M. The Queen on '26th March.
It signalises an entirely new development in the Infant Welfare movement
in this country, in that it combines under one roof the work of a
Welfare Centre, of a Day Nursery and of a Mothercraft Training Home.
Each unit has its own appropriate accommodation, with separate entrance,
and is worked independently, but there is easy communication between
all three.
The Violet Melchett Infant Welfare Centre maintains the Maternity
and Child Welfare services in the Borough and embodies the activities
of the Chelsea Health Society, the Chelsea Day Nursery and the Chelsea
Mothercraft Training Home.
The magnificient building, with the land on which it stands and a
considerable portion of its equipment, was a gift of the late Lord
Melchett as a memorial to Lady Melchett's life-long work for Infant
Welfare.
Erected on a site bounded on three sides by Manor Street, Flood Street
and Wellington Street, it is planned to obtain the maximum of air and
sunshine. The total cost of the site and buildings was £57,000—a
figure representing the largest benefaction to Maternity and Child Welfare
work ever made in this country.
The building comprises two rectangular two-storey blocks, fronting
Manor and Flood Streets, respectively, linked together by a one-storey
administrative block in Wellington Street. In the latter the routine
work of an Infant Welfare Centre is carried on. The accommodation
provided in this unit includes a large central hall, with surrounding consulting-rooms
and dressing rooms. There is also a perambulator store, an
open-air court with a garden where children may play while awaiting
medical inspection, ample office accommodation and, in rear, a threestorey
block to accommodate the staff.
The Chelsea Day Nursery is housed in the Flood Street block, the Manor
Street block being utilised as the Chelsea Mothercraft Training Home.
The Day Nursery provides accommodation for fifty children. In addition
to two large nurseries for infants and toddlers, there are bathrooms,
a kitchen and an enclosed garden for the children to play in.