National Temperance Hospital

The National Temperance Hospital was established in eighteen seventy-three as a radical medical experiment to prove that patients could recover without the standard Victorian practice of using alcohol as a medicine. At the time, hospitals across London routinely spent more money on wine, spirits, and beer than they did on bread and milk, believing alcohol served as a vital stimulant for treating everything from fever to exhaustion. This institution operated under a board of twelve total abstainers who insisted that medicinal drinking impaired both staff performance and patient health. During its first half-century, the hospital treated nearly fifty thousand patients while using alcohol only a handful of times, ultimately helping to shift the entire medical establishment toward modern, alcohol-free treatment protocols.