Highgate Dispensary on the corner of Moseley Road and Stratford Place at Highgate in Birmingham 1958 [Author's Collection]. Map extract from Sheet 131, Birmingham - 1:63 360 Ordnance Survey Map [Depicted 1950, Published 1953] © Crown Copyright. Reproduced with kind permission of the National Library of Scotland under the Creative Commons Attribution licence.

Highgate Dispensary on the corner of Moseley Road and Stratford Place at Highgate in Birmingham 1958

Taken on January 1st, 1958, this photograph shows Highgate Dispensary which stood on the corner of Moseley Road and Stratford Place. I am not sure why this attractive building was demolished, the site being just a patch of grass for many years. The history of such an institution here in Highgate dates back to 1871 when the committee of the Birmingham General Dispensary made the decision to create branches in various outlying parts of the town. The dispensary at Highgate was the first and served as a trial to determine if such a system could be rolled out successfully. The first dispensary was opened in a house on this corner formerly occupied by Thomas Beilby, a magistrate who died in 1860.¹

In the first year the dispensary had 1,205 patients. By the time this building was erected in 1886-7 the numbers had risen to 4,505. This was a result of the increased population of Highgate but also credited to the popularity of Dr. North, considered a most congenial and efficient practitioner. The new dispensary, designed by the architects Dempster and Heaton, was arranged on an apsidal plan as the most effective way of getting over the difficulty of an acute angled site. Patients would enter the building at the corner, beneath the octagonal tower, the latter measuring some 70ft., and surmounted by a spire and gilded vane. The roof was supported by circular ribbed and plain principals, these being stained and varnished as they were exposed to view, rather like the nave of a church. There was a large waiting hall for patients who were seen in consulting rooms, serious cases being treated in a small operating room. A doctor's house, on the ground floor, overlooking Highgate Park, and featuring two sitting rooms, was incorporated into the structure. On the first floor there was accommodation for the porter and servant. The external elevations were described as free adaptations of late Tudor architecture, featuring brick with Kenilworth stone mullions, bands, and dressings. Warm red in colour, the tower was almost all in stone. The architects believed that this would keep its colour in the smoky atmosphere of the locality. Supplied by Hart, Son, Peard and Co., the boundary wall was once surmounted by ornamental iron railings but these may have been requisitioned during the war. The dispensary was constructed by Messrs. Horsley Brothers, based in nearby Alcester Street, the carving being completed by Mr. Naylor.²

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References
1. "Opening Of A Branch Of The General Dispensary" : Birmingham Daily Post; February 1st, 1871. p.7.
2. "The New Dispensary At Camp Hill" : Birmingham Daily Post; February 4th, 1887. p.5.

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