First Birth Control Clinic

The UK's first birth control clinic was opened here in 1925.

Location: 108 Whitfield Street, Bloomsbury

Description: Dr Marie Stopes was born in 1880 in Edinburgh, and although a family planning pioneer, she was heavily criticised for not being a medical doctor. She opened her first family planning clinic in Holloway in 1921 before establishing it here surrounded by social deprivation four years later with her husband.

They set out to prove that a small team in simple, clean surroundings could provide family planning services to poor women. Today the organisation still exists under the cloud of daily protests from anti-abortionists.

Marie Stopes also pioneered the concept of mobile outreach, taking a horse-drawn caravan into the communities she was trying to reach. She was unafraid of criticism and remarkably wrote Married Love - the UK's first sex manual, at a time when the public had access to very limited information about sex.

Themes: Medical Medical Theme

Pioneer

First Birth Control Clinic

The UK's first birth control clinic was opened here in 1925.

Ranking This Month: 1919/2848

Pages Hit This Month: 5

Other places nearby:

The Royal Marsden Hospital», 2.7km

Dr Patrick Demare lived here», 2.9km

Whipps Cross Hospital», 7.1km

Lionel Lockyer's Monument», 2.3km

Finsbury Health Centre», 1.2km

Fleming Museum & Penicillin», 1.5km

Old Operating Theatre», 2.4km

Doctor Barnardo», 4.2km

Thomas Hodgkin lived here», 0.4km

Former Annie McCall Hospital», 3.6km

The Shady Old Lady's Guide to London

First Birth Control Clinic

The UK's first birth control clinic was opened here in 1925.

Other places nearby:

Location Pinpointed:

pinpointing the forgotten and lost history of London