The Public Assistance Institution in Nunnery Fields was adopted as a subsidiary Emergency Hospital early in 1939, and accommodation was made available for eighty further beds. Improvements were suggested to the kitchenfacilities, but the layout of the building made it hard to adapt. There was also an air-raid siren fixed to the building, perhaps ahead of the outbreak of the war. Late in 1940, equipment was supplied to heat the Public Assistance Institution siren, to prevent it from freezing-up.