Nov 252020
219 High Street, EH1 1PE
![Elsie Inglis Hospice](http://curiousedinburgh.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Untitled-10.jpg)
The Elsie Inglis Hospice was a maternity hospital originally named simply, “The Hospice.” It was created in 1904 by Dr Elsie Inglis (1864-1917) with the help of fellow medical student Dr Jessie McLaren MacGregor (1863-1906). The two women were among the first female students to attend the newly founded Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women and were both taught by its founder Dr Sophia Jex-Blake (1840-1912). Child mortality was a major public health concern and maternity wards were scarce. The hospice was run by an all-female staff, served the poorest women in Edinburgh’s Old Town, and was the forerunner of the Elsie Inglis Memorial Maternity hospital in Morningside.
![Women of Achievement plaque for Elsie Inglis](http://curiousedinburgh.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Untitled-11.jpg)
![The Hospice in the High Street (from Elsie Inglis by Eva Shaw McLaren, 1920)](http://curiousedinburgh.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Untitled-12.jpg)
![Portrait of Dr Elsie Inglis (Wellcome Collection)](http://curiousedinburgh.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Untitled-13.jpg)
(Wellcome Collection)
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When did the Hospice on the High Street stop being used?