Jenny Lind Children's Hospital

Location

Unthank Road, Norwich, NR2 2PJ

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About

The Jenny Lind Infirmary for Sick Children opened in April 1854 on Pottergate in Norwich. This was only the second children's hospital in the country, opening soon after the establishment of London's Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in 1852. The Norwich infirmary was funded entirely from the proceeds of charitable concerts given by the famous Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind. Lind gave her first concerts in Norwich in January 1847 and was received by cheering crowds, ringing bells and gun salutes. She returned to Norwich two years later with the intention of performing for charity and gave two concerts in January 1849.

A few decades later, when the original Pottergate building fell into disrepair, Jeremiah James Colman donated land on Unthank Road, and a new hospital was opened there in 1900. Jeremiah James Colman funded the conversion of the original Pottergate site into a children's playground, in memory of his younger son Alan.

In the 1970s, when the site was destined for a housing project, the playground's ornate gate was moved to the new Jenny Lind Park on the corner of Union Street and Trinity Street. In 1975 the Jenny Lind Children's Hospital amalgamated with the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, and the Unthank Road site is now Colman Hospital.

More information

Learn more about the history of Jenny Lind Children's Hospital.