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In 1931 a special three-year-old pre-school clinic was established as an experiment and achieved a
most useful purpose for some years. The object of its initiation was to endeavour to make touch
before they entered school with children who had never attended any clinic or welfare centre and to
find out something with regard to their condition for their own benefit and for the information of the
school medical officer.
A New Era.—The year 1935 saw the beginning of fresh developments in the Maternity and Child
Welfare Scheme of the Borough. It had been generally accepted that the St. Marylebone Health
Society might continue indefinitely to take a prominent part in the Scheme, and year by year the
Council had made substantial grants to the Society for the purpose. Early in 1935, however, mainly
as a result of difficulties in connection with accommodation for centres, the Society decided that the
time had arrived when it would be sufficient to confine their activities to the provision and management
of day nurseries, and on the 1st April, 1935, all their other responsibilities as regards maternity and
child welfare were taken over by the Borough Council.
At this juncture the opportunity was taken by the Council to review the scheme as then constituted,
to decide the immediate procedure to be adopted at the change-over and to plan for the future, the
ultimate aim being to form two main centres in new and specially constructed buildings. In the
meantime arrangements were made to carry on the various clinics in the centres already provided
by the Health Society and to retain the services of their medical and other officers and workers. An
important step was taken at this stage by appointing a full-time maternity and child welfare medical
officer—Dr. W. H. S. Wallace, who has remained with the service ever since.
During the next few years the work continued on these lines, often with difficulty. A "general
post" of centres took place as a number of the old buildings, including a disused public house, which
had served for clinic purposes for many years had to be vacated and temporary accommodation
found in premises which were cramped and far from suitable.
The Modern Welfare Centre.—The year 1938 saw the beginning of the realisation of the Council's
concept of what a welfare centre should be, for in January of that year the Lisson Grove Welfare
Centre (opened by the late Alderman R. Stiles Allen, J.P., as Mayor of the Borough) was brought
into use. The facilities available here include clinics for :—
Ante-natal cases
Post-natal cases
Infant welfare
Family planning
Artificial sunlight therapy
Remedial exercises
Massage
Dental treatment
Chiropody]
Diphtheria immunisation
Two years later—in April, 1940—the remainder of the Council's clinics, housed temporarily in the
Old Baths Establishment, Marylebone Road, found a permanent home in the new Welfare Centre,
forming part of the Town Hall Extension, where there is clinic provision for:—
Ante-natal cases
Post-natal cases
Infant Welfare
Artificial sunlight therapy
Remedial exercises
Massage
Child guidance
Diphtheria immunisation
Both these modern centres, fitted out with the most up-to-date equipment, have served and continue
to serve their purpose well. The Council are justly proud of them, and if further evidence of their
excellence were needed it can be found in the fact that they have been visited by Ministers of Health,
members and officers of the London County Council and other local authorities and, at the special
request of the Ministry of Health, by many distinguished visitors from this country and abroad.
Publicity experts have also realised their value for radio broadcasts and films.
In addition to these two centres, ante- and post-natal and infant welfare clinics held at the Middlesex
Hospital form part of the Council's scheme; and in 1944 the Public Health Committee suggested
that, in order to ensure the provision of conveniently accessible centres in all parts of the Borough,
the series should be completed by the inclusion of a branch Maternity and Child Welfare Centre in the
planning of the Council's Barrow Hill Road Housing Estate. This building is now in course of erection.