Visitors at the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, fulfilled an economic, social and marketing role at an institution which, in its earliest years, struggled against significant opposition from medical and charitable critics. Men and women from the respectable classes found a function that reflected well their philanthropic credentials, and that also opened up social and professional opportunities. The parents and families of the patients, however, found themselves marginalised by the hospital, and granted little scope to influence the hospital experience of their children or to interact with the supporters of the institution.