Erith HouseFormerly Torquay Institution

The story of Erith House begins with Florence Nightingale's friends Sir Culling and Lady Eardley, who in 1854 founded a temporary home for gentlewomen of limited means suffering from chest complaints, at 11 Vaughan Parade, Torquay. It was known as the Torquay Institution. The mild climate of the town had already drawn many invalids, and the Institution was set up so that ladies who could not afford the high cost of lodgings might still benefit from it.

The Institution soon outgrew its first home, and Sir Laurence Palk, later Lord Haldon, offered the use of a house called Hazelwood, on Warberry Hill, where the patients were moved. When Lady Eardley died, the Institution was renamed Erith House, after the Eardley family seat of Erith in Kent, in her memory. The house at Warberry Hill could accommodate up to twenty four patients at a time.

The Reverend Dr Pitcairn worked hard to raise funds for the charity, and among its benefactors was Herbert Minton, of the famous Staffordshire pottery family. In 1859 the site in Lower Erith Road was purchased for £300, and the present building was erected to the designs of W Adam Goss and J W Rowell at a cost of £4,000. The doors of the new Erith House were officially opened in 1861. The National Census of that year records the household in detail, giving a picture of the patients and staff who made up the community in its earliest days.

Lord and Lady Shaftesbury contributed towards the cost of glass to cover part of the building, and at the Annual General Meeting of 1883 to 1884 a new constitution was adopted. Its text set out in careful detail the criteria for admission and the weekly payment of one guinea expected from those patients who were able to pay, while still preserving the charitable purpose for which the house had been founded.

Erith House continued its work through both World Wars. During the First World War the gardener employed at the house was granted exemption from military service so that the grounds could still be maintained. Over the following decades the building was steadily improved and modernised: electric power and light were installed in 1919, part central heating was added in 1927, handbasins and a maid's bathroom were fitted in 1935 through the generosity of Mrs Rowcroft and Dame Violet Wills, the kitchen was moved to the ground floor in 1961, central heating was extended to the bedrooms in 1979, en-suite facilities were added in 1992, and a lift was installed in 1998.

Over the years Erith House has enjoyed the patronage of a succession of royal ladies, among them the Duchesses of Gloucester, Kent, Cambridge and York, Queen Mary, Princess Marie Louise, Countess Mountbatten and Lady Roborough. Today Erith House is a registered Residential Home, and since 1997 it has accommodated both ladies and gentlemen. The building is listed, and Erith House remains a registered charity.

2004 marked the 150th Anniversary of the founding of the Torquay Institution in 1854, and it was to celebrate this milestone that the Torbay Civic Society unveiled its blue plaque at Erith House on 14th July that year.

Written by Torbay Civic Society Chairman Ian L Handford, having access to the yearly reports from 1854. June 2004. Front cover photograph taken June 2004. Sponsorship of the blue plaque and this publication for Erith House was a donation given by Miss Alethea Orbell, in memory of her sisters Mary and Dorothy, who had connections with Erith House over many years.