LOCAL LIFE
Womenʼs ward of the Phillips Memorial
Hospital which began life in Widmore Road
A BROMLEY LIFE
BROMLEY: IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH....
Words: John Ruler
t’s a long way from the high-tech hip and Bromley, around 1794, at the tender age of 22, he caused by foul water and heaps of decomposing
I
joint operations now routinely performed was, by the time of his death in 1848 , known not rubbish in the streets, forced the formation of a
at places like the PRUH - as the Princess just throughout the UK but Europe generally. Board of Health. And in 1888 , with the population
Royal University Hospital at Farnborough is So phenomenal was his success that for several approaching the 21,000 mark, Dr Arthur Codd was
affectionately called. years his practice reportedly showed a profit of at appointed Medical Officer of Health.
But thanks to the medical skills of one man, James least £10,000 a year - a hefty sum in those days.
Photography: John Ruler & Bromley Librar
Scott, Bromley’s population shot up in 1831 by Before retiring to Clay Hill, Shortlands, his house,
855 - due largely to those clamouring for treatment used by a succession of established local surgeons,
by a surgeon whose work on diseased joints and stood almost opposite the famous High Street Bell
ulcerated hips were to become legend. So much so hotel, which benefitted hugely from his fame. His
that special Scott’s Coaches were run from London. only son, John, likewise became a well known
There was even a doggerel written about him, one London surgeon.
verse of which ran: But health and Bromley were sometimes uneasy
“ So when you are ill, companions. Take this jingle for instance:
y
Lacking potion or pill, Matchless Cleanser has swept away;
To Bromley repair - famed spot A Thousand worries of Washing Day.”
At the Bell put up, pray Maybe, but what Matchless would not of done
Just step over the way was to improve the insanitary conditions which,
In 1885, Joseph Harridine, the then landlord of
And be cured by miraculous Scott....” though steadily improving during Victorian times,
the Swan & Mitre in the upper High Street, found a
Orphaned at an earlier age, Scott relied on his was earning Bromley the reputation of being one of
large number of crutches left there by patients cured
cheery optimism and zeal at the London Hospital to the smelliest towns in Kent. by James Scott, whose portrait is pictured in the
became a specialist in his chosen field. Arriving in If nothing else, an epidemic of cholera in 183l, pub porch.
14 | MARCH ISSUE
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