1809 Preston Charitable Dispensary opens

The Preston Royal Infirmary
The towns' first hospital was finally built in 1866.
This postcard dates from around 1910

Preston had no public health facilities until 1809. This was when the Preston Charitable Dispensary was built. The dispensary was a place where the sick could get the medicines they needed and also see a doctor.

The Dispensary was built in Everton Gardens, near where the bus station is today. It did excellent work to help the poor, but the town's population was growing so fast that, by the 1850s, the Dispensary could not meet the demand for health care.