.THE HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE JUBILEE STREET PRACTICE

There are many threads that make up the Jubilee Street Practice, which occupied Steels lane health centre from 1982 – 1998, and has recently moved to it’s current site at 368 Commercial Road. The Steel’s Lane Health Centre building was originally bought in 1889 to give accommodation for 13 patients, and was called the East End Mothers' Home - a development of the Glamis Road Mothers' Lying-in Home for the treatment of poor married women during childbirth, free of charge to the patients, and also for the training of midwives and nurses. Lady Greville, who had been Lady-in-Waiting to Queen Victoria, formed these homes, it is reported that among 519 patients delivered in 1896 only one maternal death was recorded.

Harford Street Site

Dr. Harry Roberts laid the first strand of the partnership in 1906. He was a West Country man who had been in medical practice in West Cornwall for ten years. His daughter writes: -

"Medical Practice in Stepney in 1906 was at an extremely inefficient level; with few exceptions it was staffed by seriously underpaid doctors who had been unsuccessful in obtaining more lucrative posts elsewhere. Dr. Roberts, was deeply involved with a passionate desire for justice to the under-dog, and said he felt he could at least be of some help as a doctor in the slums of East London if he could find a practice there. So in 1906, to Stepney he went. Those of us who remember Stepney in the early nineties will recall the incredible poverty and hardship that most people had to face there; especially women. For the first year as a doctor in Stepney, my father never left the practice for a single hour. Medical fees were sixpence, to include medicine, and one shilling if you were visited on the round. It is on record that in the first year he attended over 500 confinements and never lost one mother. At times, with no one in the house to help, he delivered the baby, washed and dressed it, saw to the mother and, unheard of amongst other doctors, found time to make her a cup of tea before he left her. I remember so well those early days, when night after night, my father never had a chance to undress and go to bed before another call arrived - this after a twelve hour day of continuous visiting and surgery - with often only a cup of coffee and a biscuit to keep him going. There was much checking of contagious contacts and congratulatory notes from the London Hospital, where my father, when in any doubt would immediately ring up. By the time the Health Insurance Act came into force, in 1911, his practice was by far the largest and best run in East London. It had four doctors, one a woman, two qualified nurse midwives, a dentist and a masseur”.

The Ministry of Health used to send visitors from abroad, who wished to see the Panel System working, to Harford Street to see Dr. Roberts at work. He was an early member of the Fabian Society and a friend of G.B. Shaw and H.G. Wells.

After Dr. Roberts death in 1946 part of the practice continued to be run by Dr. Lottie Weiherrmann and Huxley Fernando; and then by Dr. H. Claff who practised from number 66 Jubilee Street.

Harold Claff retired from the practice n 1992 at the age of 70. Anjum Iqubal, vocationally trained on the North Middlesex scheme, succeeded him. Anjum Iqubal left the practice in 1996 to move to Enfield. Dr Robin Cartwright who has been a GP for many years in Cambridge and has considerable experience in undergraduate teaching succeeded him.

Cable Street Site

Another outstanding doctor who started in practice in Cable Street in 1927 was Hannah Billig. Besides being on the Stepney Hospital Management Committee, she was awarded the George Medal for exceptional bravery during the Blitz on London in 1941 and later, in 1945, was made an MBE whilst serving in the Indian Medical Service 1945. Dr. Billig died some years ago in Caesarea, Israel, where she lived after her retirement. An exhibition of her life work was shown at the Ragged School Museum Stepney, in 1996. Her successor in the Cable Street Practice was Doctor Katarina Schopflin, medically trained in Budapest and Scotland, whose pioneering work in caring for and guiding women to achieve their life potential brought her the award of the OBE shortly before her retirement from the Jubilee Street Practice. Dr. Schopflin opened Steels Lane Health Centre in the Maternity Hospital building on 28th January 1982, which had been converted at a cost of almost one million pounds by the Health Authority, one of the first purpose built centres to be opened in Stepney. Dr Mary Edmondson is her successor.

Arbour Square Site

Dr. Louis Jaffe came to the London Jewish Hospital and took over a small practice in Stepney Way after the First World War and later moved to Arbour Square to make it a large thriving practice. Despite considerable physical disability as a result of childhood illness Dr. Jaffe continued in practice until his eighties and a Medical Research Fund was established in his memory. Dr. Brian Harris joined the Partnership in 1963.

Methodist Mission Bromley Street Site

During the years of the Depression the Methodist Church ran a Medical Mission for the wives and children of those workers who were covered by the original stamp, the forerunner of the National Health Service. Those who were working only paid this stamp. This left no cover for non-working wives and the dependants of the workers. The Mission Practice was housed first at The Castle, an ex pub on the site of the present East London Stadium and then in Bromley Street employing a number of young recently qualified women to provide a medical service. The Mission charged sixpence a consultation if it could be afforded and another sixpence for medicine. It was very much in demand.

In 1948 this service was taken over by the National Health Service and Dr. McGill who had worked many years in Sierra Leone as a missionary was both the last of the Mission doctors and the first to run it as a National Health Service Practice. She retired in 1958 and the practice was taken over by Erica Jones. In the early 1970's Dr. Schopflin and Dr. Jones managed to get the domiciliary obstetric service moving again after some years without one. With the opening of the new Health Centre Dr. Erica Jones moved her practice from Bromley Street to Steels Lane joining the Jubilee Street Practice.

When Erica Jones retired from General Practice on 1.1.92 a notable chapter in the life of the Jubilee Street Practice came to a close. Erica brought to the practice not only her lively and distinctive personality but also a great wealth and breadth of personal and medical experience that benefited the practice and the many aspiring GP's she nurtured in her capacity as a local trainer.

Dr. Michael Young who qualified in medicine in New Zealand was one of the first doctors vocationally trained in General Practice at the London Hospital and trained at the Jubilee Street Practice. He joined the partnership in 1980 as a replacement for Dr Nick Whyte, in 1980. In 1995 he left the partnership to continue at St Katherine’s dock site as a single-handed practitioner.

Dr Sally Hull joined the partnership in 1980, from the vocational training scheme at St Thomas hospital, with a particular interest in developing undergraduate teaching for general practice.

In 1992 Naomi Beer and Rebecca Viney joined the Partnership. They had both been on the London Hospital Vocational Training Scheme and trained at the Jubilee Street Practice. Rebecca Viney left in 1994 to be replaced by Jane edge. Jane Edge left to move to Bristol in 1999 to be replaced by Nicola Hagdrup. In 1997 Nicola Cowap, also a London hospital VTS joined the practice. In May 2000 Dr Andrew Warsop joined the practice as an additional full time Partner.