The Royal Infirmary, Infirmary Road, Leicester
This hospital was opened in September 1771. Its founder, the Rev. William Watts, held fund raising events to raise £2,200 to build the then 40 bed hospital. As a voluntary hospital it relied on subscriptions from the city’s rich and good to keep it going. Burying patients who died was expensive and patients admitted to hospital had to give a deposit - which was returned when the patient went home. If they didn’t go home the money was used to bury them. The new Infirmary, like the rest of Leicester, had no running water but did boast its own brewery. Alcohol was used as treatments for a whole range of conditions. In 1808 the then 60 bedded hospital recorded that patients consumed 946 pints of wine, 987 gallons of ale, 38 pints of brandy and 14 pints of gin.
