Beds Gallery

Heath Robinson Bedroom 4 of 4

Heath Robinson Does Away with Servants - Patent Applied for by "The Sketch" in the Bedroom. A bedroom, which is a typically Heath Robinson design, with a system of pulleys, levers and machinery allowing multiple tasks to be carried out with the least effort. Mother, Father and baby all in separate beds, yet still able to fetch the morning mail, newspaper, telephone, pour tea (kept hot from the gas lamp), select a dressing gown, slippers, and even a cigarette from a spring loaded box, and no need for servants. Even the pendulum of the clock serves as a handy baby rocker. Please note: Credit must appear as Courtesy of the Estate of Mrs J.C.Robinson/Pollinger Ltd/ILN/Mary Evan"

© Courtesy of the estate of Mrs J.C.Robinson/Pollinger Ltd/ILN/Mary Evans Picture Library

Portslade Industrial School - Dormitory

Rows of beds and bedding in a dormitory at Portslade Industrial School near Brighton in Sussex. The school opened in 1902 to house children placed there for reasons such as vagrancy, begging, disrupting schools, or living with prostitutes. After 1933, Portslade became Mile Oak Approved School.. Date: circa 1905

© Mary Evans/Peter Higginbotham Collection

Patients in B Ward at Quex Park VAD Hospital

B Ward at Quex Park VAD Hospital was sited in Gallery 1 of the two museum galleries then existing. This room had been built as a pavilion in the garden of Quex House in 1896. The museum was extended into a second room alongside in the years before the First World War. Behind the beds can be seen the covering over the glass of the natural history diorama housed in this room. Other museum exhibits are on the wall and the case below them was also part of the museum fittings. This room accommodated 15 beds. The Quex Park VAD Hospital opened on 15 October 1914 and closed on 31 January 1919. The hospital was run by Kent/178, the Birchington Detachment. The Commandant was Hannah Powell-Cotton (1881-1964), wife of Major Percy HG Powell-Cotton (1866-1940) of Quex Park, founder of the Powell-Cotton Museum. Date: 1918

© The Powell-Cotton Museum Collection / Mary Evans Picture Library