What does Caring for London mean to you? You may think of doctors and nurses, and London is certainly blessed with some of the best health services in the world. What about social care? The London Borough Councils, together with countless community organisations, support thousands of adult and children in London every day. This image gallery aims to introduce you to historic images of medical and nursing services, welfare settings and approaches to care from times gone by. Many images date from before the start of the National Health Service, showing the variation in service provision in the capital before 1948.

Nurses are well represented in this gallery. Often portrayed historically as brow-moppers and assistants to the doctor, the images here will show you that independence and specialism in nursing is no new thing. Some show that nurses took on technical, therapeutic and paramedical roles in additional to bedside nursing. Many nurses did not work in hospitals at all, but ran community clinics and home-visiting services including health visiting, health education and district midwifery.

Some of the images in this collection show aspects of London’s emergency care services, of which the ambulance service is the most familiar. In contrast, we are also reminded of the vital role of public health measures to prevent and control diseases like diphtheria and tuberculosis at a time when vaccines and effective treatments were only starting to emerge.