The Dome & Corn Exchange as Hospital Wards

Both the Dome and the Corn Exchange were administered as part of the Pavilion Indian Hospital.

With its large circular open space it provided an unusual space to set up hospital beds. Attached to the vestibule at the entrance to the Dome from Church Street, an X-ray room was set up and rooms for heat and electrical treatment. [1] Like the Royal Pavilion, the Dome also had its own operating rooms for surgery.

The large pipe organ at the Dome was left intact and organ recitals were given to the Indian patients twice a week. This would certainly have been strange sounds to the Indian patients, unfamiliar with western musical tastes and church organ music. Other aspects of the Dome’s previous life as a theatre were also put into use including the powerful magic lantern projector which was used for slide shows and silent movies to entertain the patients. [2]

The Corn Exchange, attached to the Dome with its large open space also accommodated hospital beds and some of the most seriously ill patients were housed there. [3]

Footnotes

1. Joyce Collins, Dr Brightons Indian Patients December 1914 - January 1916 (Brighton Books, 1997) 7

2. A Short History In English, Gurmukhi & Urdu of the Royal Pavilion Brighton and a Description of it as A Hospital for Indian Soldiers (Corporation of Brighton, 1915) 13

3. Joyce Collins, Dr Brightons Indian Patients December 1914 - January 1916 (Brighton Books, 1997) 18