LONDONDERRY HOSPITALS
The lunatic asylum for the counties of Londonderry, Donegal, and Tyrone, situated on rising ground to the north of the city, was commenced in June 1827, and opened in 1829; the entire expense, including the purchase of the site and furniture, amounted to £25,678. 2. 4., advanced by Government, and to be repaid by the three counties by instalments. The facade fronting the river consists of a centre with pavilions, from which extend wings with airing-sheds, terminating in angular pavilions, all of Dungiven sandstone; above the centre rises a turret, of which the upper part forms an octagonal cupola; in the rear are several commodious airing-yards, separated by ranges of brick building, including the domestic offices and workshops: the entire length of the front is 364 feet; the depth of the building, with the airing-yards, 190 feet; and the height to the eave, 25 feet. The grounds comprise eight acres, including a plot in front ornamentally planted, and a good garden.
The asylum was originally intended for 104 patients, but has been enlarged so as to admit 150: it is still too small, from the cells being partially occupied by incurables, persons afflicted with epilepsy, and idiots. The average annual expenditure for the last three years ending 1835 was £2554. 3. 6.: the average number of patients discharged recovered in each year was 42; discharged relieved, 6; and incurable, 4; and the average number of deaths was 17 in each year: the number of patients at the commencement of 1836 was 155; about 100 of the patients are constantly employed.
The infirmary and fever hospital, for the city and county, on the north of the city, was built in 1814, in place of an old poor-house which previously occupied the site of the present fish and vegetable markets, and is supported by parliamentary grants, Grand Jury presentments, governors' subscriptions, and contingencies: it contains 120 beds. The average annual income for five years ending Jan. 5th, 1833, was £1475. 15. 10 ½., and the expenditure, £1456. 10.; the entire number of patients deriving relief from this institution on the 5th of Jan., 1835, was 463.
A dispensary for the city and north-west liberties was established in 1819 by the late Bishop Knox and the inhabitants, and is supported by voluntary contributions, an annual grant of £30 by the Irish Society, and presentments by the Grand Jury; the number of patients relieved in that year was 920, and the expenditure, £235. 8. 2.
The clergymen's widows' fund originated in voluntary subscriptions, to which Bishop Knox, a munificent benefactor to most of the charitable institutions of Derry, gave £1000, and most of the Protestant clergy of the diocese contributed: the widows now receive each £35 per annum, and the six senior widows have houses rent-free, called the Widows'-row, adjacent to the cathedral. The charitable loan fund was instituted by Bishop Knox, and the corporation contributed to it £31. 10. per ann. until the year 1829, from which period it was unsupported till 1833, when the Irish Society granted £10 annually towards the expense of management: the capital, which is decreasing, amounted on July 31st, 1835, to £423.
The ladies' penny society has an average annual income of about £200, including a bequest of £30 per ann., and an annual grant of £30 by the Irish Society, which is applied in distributing clothing and a few articles of food among the poor: it has also a branch called the flax fund, to which the Society contribute £20 per annum, for the distribution of certain portions of flax among poor applicants, who are paid for spinning it into yarn. The poor-shop, instituted in 1821, under the management of a committee of ladies, for providing the poor with clothes and bedding at first cost, on condition of their giving security for payment by weekly instalments at the rate of one penny in the shilling, is supported by subscriptions.
A mendicity association was instituted in 1825, chiefly through the exertions of Bishop Knox; and a penitentiary for reclaiming abandoned females, to which there is a school attached, was established in 1829. A religious tract depository, in connection with which is a religious, moral, and historical society, was established in 1822: the library formed by the society comprises about 500 publications, and at least one half of the funds must be expended on works purely religious.
The above and many other charitable institutions are in a great degree attributable to the indefatigable exertions of the late Lady Hill. Alderman Peter Stanley, in 1751, bequeathed £42 per annum late currency for 31 inhabitants of the city and liberties on the western side of the river; and in 1831, Margaret Evory gave £20 per annum for the poor of the entire parish.
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