Constantine Gras
  • Gras Art
  • Film
  • Exhibitions
  • Blog
  • About/Contact

Birth Control

9/6/2016

1 Comment

 
Picture
​
​"Wife's age 29. Married 11 years. General condition debilitated. 

12 pregnancies: 5 children alive, 5 miscarriages, 2 children died in early years. 
Referred from Welfare Centre."
North Kensington Women's Welfare Centre, 1929 Annual Report. 

"If you're getting married or are just married, why don't you and your finance, or you and your husband, both come to the North Kensington Marriage Welfare Centre at 12 Telford Road. Ladbroke Grove, W10 on the first Tuesday of any month?
After coffee and biscuits at 7pm, there will be an informal discussion led by a doctor about the many new aspects of the life you will be sharing together."
1950's advertising card. ​
Picture

The North Kensington Women’s Welfare Centre was a charitable organisation opened at 12 Telford Road in 1924. It was the third birth control clinic in England that was set up by three Margaret's: Margery Spring-Rice, who was the niece of Dr Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the first Englishwoman to qualify as a physician and surgeon in Britain; Margaret Lloyd who was a cousin of Bertrand Russell and devoted to left wing and women's causes; and the Hon Mrs. Margaret Dighton Pollock, daughter of the first Lord Buckmaster who introduced a Birth Control Bill into the House of Lords in 1926. Margery Spring Rice and Margaret Lloyd, who both lived in Kensington, were inspired to set up the centre after hearing accounts of the domestic burdens of their respective char-women who came from the very poor district of Notting Dale.

​The centre had the aim of giving contraceptive services to working class women in North Kensington as this was then only available from private doctors. Fees were charged according to the financial circumstances of husband and wife.
Picture

Staff at the centre played a major role in setting up the Family Planning Association in which it would operate as a specialist branch. By the 1950’s it was re-named as the North Kensington Marriage Welfare Centre and had become a super-clinic, offering services not available on the newly formed NHS including early treatments for infertility and sexual problems.

Dr Helena Wright and Dr Joan Malleson both worked at the Centre for over twenty years. They played a major role in the international development of family planning, the right to abortion and sex education.

During the period 1924-53, the Centre treated over 46,000 patients. In the year 1963 it had over 10,000 visits to the Centre. The centre was well regarded internationally and visited by Drs and Nurses from around the world who undertook training there. 

On the research front, the centre also initiated or took part in research trials for cervical caps, pastes, the pill, IUD and cervical screening.

In the 1970’s, the council redeveloped the site to build a fire Station on Ladbroke Grove and the clinic temporarily relocated to a nearby portable cabin before moving back into the re-formed Raymede Clinic.
​
Over 1000 FPA clinics were eventually taken over by the NHS in 1973-74. ​
Picture
​The FPA archive is held in the Wellcome Library.

My response to the archive is a work in progress. At times, it's been a pitch for a TV series and also as a multi-media art project with actors. I'm now showing the drawings I've made in response to the archive and these are in the style of a narrative film storyboard. These images illustrate scenes from the 1920's-1970's and reflect profound changes in society: the controversy and campaigning undertaken by early pioneers; how birth control was connected with the eugenics movement; the gradual acceptance of family planning as a right for all women, irregardless of marriage status; the impact of the pill in the 1960s; and post-war migration leading to the forming of new British communities, family structures and households.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
1 Comment
celeb networth link
2/6/2023 11:25:57

Thank you! I hope to see more updates from you.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    HOME
    ​FILM
    EXHIBITIONS
    BLOG
    ABOUT/CONTACT

    Categories

    All
    Ar
    Architecture
    Art
    Belfast
    Books
    Built Environment
    Ceramic-art
    Chaplin
    Community
    Coronet Theatre
    Dance
    Derek Latham
    Design
    Drawing
    Edinburgh
    Environment
    Europe
    Exhibition
    Films
    Flood Light
    Gate Cinema
    Glasgow
    Grand Union Canal
    Greece
    Grenfell
    Henry James
    History
    Home
    Horror
    Irish
    Jacob Barua
    Kensal Green
    Lancaster West Estate
    Latymer Mapping Project
    Leo The Last
    Melodrama
    Melodramatic Elephant
    Migrant Crisis
    More West
    Music
    Nathaniel Westlake
    Nicholas Ray
    North Kensington
    Notting Hill
    Painting
    Photo Book
    Photography
    Pittsburgh
    Poland
    Portobello Film Festival
    Portrait Of A Lady
    Regeneration
    Sculpture
    Silchester Estate
    Siobhan Davies Dance
    Social Housing
    Soundtrack
    Stain Glass
    St Helen's Festival
    Still Moving
    Theatre
    Therapy
    This That
    This-That
    University Of Warwick
    V&A Museum
    Westway
    W. Eugene Smith

    Archives

    July 2024
    May 2024
    September 2021
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    July 2013
    May 2013
    January 2013
    September 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Gras Art
  • Film
  • Exhibitions
  • Blog
  • About/Contact