ASHFORD

Ashford Cottage Hospital, Wellesley Road (now Caxton House). TR 012 431 BF101322 A cottage hospital was established at Ashford in 1869. The original premises, a converted house, were superseded by this attractive purpose-built hospital, erected in 1877.

Constructed of red brick on an H-plan, it was extended in 1900 and a new ward wing was added in 1915. In 1926 a new hospital was built in Ashford and the building in Wellesley Road was, in 1992, occupied by various businesses as offices.

Ashford Hospital (demolished), King’s Avenue. TR 002 431 BF101323 This small general hospital, built in 1926-8 to designs by Edward A. Jackson, of Ashford, comprised a two-storey brick administration block, connected by a long central corridor to similar ward blocks behind.

There was also a nurses’ home, an old boiler house, and a mortuary. Wartime additions included a brick-built gas decontamination plant (latterly a physiotherapy department) and an underground shelter. More recent developments included a new day hospital.

The site has now been redeveloped with housing.

Ashford Isolation Hospital (demolished), Warren Lane. TR 003 440 BF101132 The isolation hospital administered by Ashford Urban District Council had originally been established in c.1867 by Mr H. Whitfeld, a medical practitioner in Ashford, who had responded to the lack of accommodation in the town for patients suffering from infectious diseases. He built a small hospital which he mostly used in connection with his own practice. On the death of Mr Whitfeld in 1877 the Urban Sanitary Authority took a lease of the hospital for 21 years and enlarged it to accommodate eight beds.

The original block (to the north) was added to between the wars. The map above shows two additional blocks, two more were added, probably later in the 1930s. By the 1970s it was known as Warren Hospital. It was demolished to make way for the M20 motorway in the early 1980s or late 1970s (it was just south-west of junction 9).

Willesborough Hospital, Willesborough Road (East Ashford Union Workhouse). TR 034 423 BF101321 A workhouse complex, of red brick, built in 1837, and with later additions, including an infirmary block and a chapel of 1897-8. Since converted to residential and industrial premises.

AYLESFORD

Preston Hall Hospital (Preston Hall Sanatorium, Preston Hall Chest Hospital) TQ728 581 102795 Country house converted into a sanatorium by the 1930s.

During the war Emergency Medical Scheme hutted ward blocks were erected in the grounds to the north east (now demolished). Preston Hall has now been converted into private housing. Associated with the British Legion village.

BENENDEN

Benenden Hospital (Benenden Sanatorium) TQ834 352 102793 First opened in 1907, this sanatorium was established for postal workers by the National Association for the Establishment and Maintenance of Sanatoria.

The formal opening of the partially completed sanatorium took place in May 1907 with Princess Christian performing the ceremony. It was designed by A. W. West. By 1913 there was still only about two-thirds of West’s scheme built.

The original design comprised a central pavilion with accommodation for 64 patients, together with administrative offices, kitchen, dining hall etc and to have separate blocks containing 10 to 20 beds each, providing a total of 205 beds. The architect tried to design a building that was moderately priced but permanent, as he considered that most sanatoria then in existence were either too expensive (such as the King Edward VII Sanatorium at Midhurst) or were temporary structures, liable to need almost entire rebuilding (Glen-o-Dee, in Scotland or Mundesley in Norfolk might have fitted this description), or so built that the rooms could not be properly cleaned. West explained: ‘So I cast about to find something that would get over these objections, and finally decided to use a steel framework filled in with ‘Grazzi’ and cement, rough-casted on the outside, and plastered on the inside.’

Sources: Benenden Hospital Trust: The Observer, 5 May 1907: The Architectural Review, 1 Jan 1913, pp 17-18

BIRCHINGTON

St Mary’s Convalescent Home TR 300 690 BF101430. Convalescent home erected in 1888. This was a 4-storey building for 34 patients. A new wing was added in 1912

BOBBING

Keycol Hill Hospital (Sittingbourne and Milton Joint Hospital for Infectious Diseases) TQ 873 645 102790

BROADSTAIRS AND ST PETERS

Yarrow Home for Convalescent Children, Ramsgate Road (latterly Thanet Technical College). TR 393 673 BF101148.

This large, purpose-built convalescent home occupying a fine sea-side site, was built in 1895 to designs by Davis and Emanuel of London. It was founded by the London shipbuilder, A. F. Yarrow.

CANTERBURY

Kent and Canterbury Hospital, Ethelbert Road. TR155 563 BF101137  This large general hospital was built to replace the original building in Longport Street which had been erected in 1793. The new hospital was designed by Cecil Burns of Tunbridge Wells in 1935. It opened in 1937. Its gleaming white walls, then an impressive example of the modern style, are now, for the most part, concealed by later additions.

During the Second World War hutted ward blocks were built on the site as part of the Emergency Medical Scheme (EMS). In 1948 the hospital became part of the National Health Service (NHS) and continues to function as a general hospital. It was greatly extended post-war, in the 1960s-70s.

Kent and Canterbury Hospital (former, demolished), Longport Street (General Kent and Canterbury Hospital). TR 154 576 101139 This general hospital was opened in 1793, having been erected for a sum of £6,000 raised by public subscription. It was originally a three-storey building with two-storey wings to each side. Two new wings were added to the south front by 1874, and in 1905 the hospital was extensively renovated.

By 1927 it provided 115 beds but it was decided that a new hospital was required and so it was superceded by the new Kent and Canterbury Hospital in Ethelbert Road in 1937.

Mount Hospital (partly demolished), Stodmarsh Road (Canterbury City Sanatorium). TR178 582 BF101178 A small isolation hospital built to serve the city of Canterbury in 1896-7. It was designed by the city surveyor, A. H. Campbell.

The hospital was transferred to the National Health Service in 1948 and was latterly used as a cottage hospital. It closed in 1989 but was being partially used as a day-centre for people with additional support needs in 1991. Around 2009 the site was redeveloped for housing, some buildings retained, at least in shell, with new infill.

Nunnery Fields Hospital (part demolished) (Canterbury Union Workhouse). TR150 567 BF101136 A geriatric hospital in 1992, this was originally a Poor Law site, comprising Canterbury Union Workhouse, erected c.1850 to designs by Hezekiah Marshall, and an adjoining infirmary, added in 1883 to designs by John Cowell. Other buildings on the site include a detached chapel and a home for staff.

The core of the buildings have now been converted to housing, with additional development on three sides of the complex. The chapel was demolished.

St Martin’s Hospital (Canterbury Borough Lunatic Asylum). TR 167 577 BF101177

A medium-sized county asylum, erected in 1900-02 to designs by W. J. Jennings of Canterbury. It was a modest version of the then fashionable échelon-plan type of asylum introduced by G. T. Hine. It consisted of four large two-storey patients’ pavilions, arranged in a rough semi-circle or échelon along the southern side of a central group of kitchen and dining buildings.

Adjoining these to the north were a collection of other service buildings and courtyards, with the administration building at the far north of the complex. Other buildings included a detached private patients’ block, a gate lodge, and staff housing. The administration building at the north of the site was demolished after suffering damage during the Second World War.

CHARTHAM

St Augustine’s Hospital, Chartham Downs (Second Kent County Lunatic Asylum). TR 116 542 BF101176 St Augustine’s Hospital was originally built as the Kent County Lunatic Asylum to designs by John Giles and Gough in 1872.

It was opened in 1875 and initially provided accommodation for 870 patients. It was designed on the pavilion plan with single-storey corridors linking the ward blocks. Along the central line of the complex were the administration block to the north with the kitchen, stores and recreation hall behind and the chapel to the south. It was scheduled for closure in 1991.

CHATHAM

All Saints’ Hospital (Medway Union Workhouse; Medway Hospital) TQ 763 670 BF100687  see Historic Medway for more information

Chatham Convalescent Home, 214 Maidstone Road TQ 754 660 BF101431. Convalescent home erected upon an open country site near Chatham. A rectangular 2-storey building with attic, and verandah to the east. Built in red brick rough cast, plastering and plain tile roofs. This home could take 5 patients.

This is presumably the small convalescent home built for George Winch to designs by John Belcher, although the building, which survives, does not match the published design in Academy Architecture in 1892. It was described in The Builder in March 1893 as lately erected, and had room for five patients, matron and servants’ offices. A Mr Filley of Chatham was the builder. Kelly’s Directory of 1903 lists just one convalescent home in Chatham, then called Holcombe Convalescent Home for Women and Children, with  a Miss Ebbs listed as the matron, and the address given as Maidstone Road.

Melville Hospital (largely demolished), Dock Road. TQ 759 687 101410 This large naval hospital was erected in 1827-8 and provided accommodation for 252 patients. It comprised three plain, three-storey ward blocks with two smaller blocks between them, all connected by an arcade. The smaller blocks contained the dispensary and the victualling room. The hospital was replaced by an even larger new hospital in Gillingham which opened in 1905. The Melville was then taken over as an extension to the Royal Marines’ Barracks. During the 1960s most of the buildings on the site were demolished.

COXHEATH

Linton Hospital (Maidstone Union Workhouse). TQ 744 509 BF101221 This rather plain former workhouse was erected for the Maidstone Union in the 1830s. Its basic courtyard plan suggests that it was built on Sir Francis Bond Head’s model plan published in the first Annual Reportof the Poor Law Commissioners.

A number of Head-plan workhouses were erected in Kent, but elsewhere in England Sampson Kempthorne’s model plans, published in the same report, were more usually adopted. In 1883 a gothic-style chapel was added on the north side of the building. In contrast to the utilitarian stock brick of the workhouse, the chapel was of stone, probably the local Kentish rag, and ornamented with a fine hammer-beam roof over the nave.

A small group of hutted ward blocks to the south were added during the Second World War and a number of later buildings erected after the site was transferred to the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948.

CRANBROOK

Passmore Edwards Convalescent Home for the Metropolitan Hospital TQ 770 360 BF101432.

DARENTH

Darenth Park Hospital, Gore Road (Darenth Asylum for Imbeciles and Schools for Imbecile Children; Darenth Park Colony). TQ 571 730 101217 Darenth Park was established by the Metropolitan Asylums Board originally to provide separate accommodation for imbecile children, removing them from the two existing asylums for imbeciles at Caterham and Leavesden which had been opened in 1875. The architects A. & C. Harston were appointed in 1875 and at that stage they drew up plans for a building to accommodate 500 children at a cost of £52,000. The asylum was completed in November 1878 and almost immediately work began on a second complex on the adjacent site to the west. This was to accommodate patients over sixteen years of age who were considered to be ‘improvable’ and were trained in workshops.

Southern Hospital (demolished) (Gore Farm Smallpox Camp; Southern Convalescent Hospital). TQ 568 723 BF101218 The Metropolitan Asylums Board (MAB), who had responsibility for London’s paupers suffering from lunacy and infectious diseases, acquired a site to the south of their asylum at Darenth in 1883. A temporary convalescent hospital for smallpox cases was erected on the site comprising tents or marquees. Providing 300 beds, it was considered to be the largest civil hospital camp in England at that time. In 1887 some temporary huts replaced a part of the camp and in 1890 a permanent hospital for convalescent smallpox patients was built on the higher ground above the camp. The two halves of the hospital were known as the ‘Upper’ and ‘Lower’ hospitals. The last of the tents were replaced by huts in 1902. In the following year the hospital changed its role slightly to cater for general convalescent fever cases rather than smallpox. It was transferred to the London County Council (LCC) along with other MAB hospitals in 1930 following the Local Government Act, and in 1948 was transferred to the National Health Service.

DARTFORD

Bexley Hospital (largely demolished) Old Bexley Lane (First LCC Asylum; Bexley Heath Asylum). TQ 515 727 BF101206 This large mental hospital was built in 1896-8 to the designs of G. T. Hine. The plan was a modification of Hine’s échelon-plan at Claybury Asylum in Essex (now in the London Borough of Redbridge). It was the first asylum to be commissioned by the London County Council (LCC) and served as a model for three later asylums.

When it was completed it provided accommodation for 2,000 patients who were mostly housed in the main complex.

There were, however, a number of villas on the site for convalescents, new admissions and farm workers as well as the requisite isolation hospital. The mansion on the site was used as the residence for the Medical Superintendent.

Most of the hospital was demolished to make way for a housing development – Bexley Park. The chapel was retained.

Bow Arrow Hospital (demolished), Bow Arrow Lane (Dartford and District Infectious Diseases Hospital). TQ 556 743 BF101215 The isolation hospital provided by Dartford Rural District Council was built in 1893 and originally comprised a brick administration block and temporary, corrugated-iron ward pavilions. It was subsequently extended until there were seven ward blocks on the site, as well as the administration block, nurses’ home, boiler house and laundry and a small chapel. All the buildings have now been demolished and housing was being built on part of the site in 1992.

Joyce Green Hospital TQ 546 760 BF101208 Amongst the extensive hospital buildings provided by the Metropolitan Asylums Board (MAB) at the Long Reach site, Joyce Green was the only permanent hospital. The first part of the site was acquired in 1883 and in the following year a floating smallpox hospital was established when three hospital ships were moored at Long Reach. Additional ground was acquired in 1894 in anticipation of further accommodation being needed. The smallpox epidemic of 1901 provided the incentive for building two temporary hospitals, Long Reach and the Orchard, and one permanent hospital, Joyce Green. They were all designed by the Board’s architects, A. & C. Harston. Joyce Green was completed in 1903 and comprised a series of two-storeyed, brick ward pavilions arranged en échelon; this plan-type was chosen because it avoided building over the line of the main West Kent Sewer. Seldom required for smallpox cases, Joyce Green became a general fever hospital and, during the Second World War, was converted into a general hospital under the Emergency Medical Scheme (EMS). It was transferred to the National Health Service in 1948. Most of the buildings survived in 1992.

Livingstone Hospital, Easthill. TQ 548 738 BF 101207

A small cottage hospital built in 1894 to designs by G. H. Tait. It was founded as memorial to David Livingstone and H. V. Stanley laid the foundation stone. Major extensions were carried out to the south from 1910.

Long Reach Hospital (demolished), Joyce Green Lane. TQ 550 773 BF101210 The first part of the site at Long Reach was acquired by the Metropolitan Asylums Board (MAB) in 1883 in connection with the hospital ships moored there. In 1894 a much larger piece of land was acquired on which to build additional hospital accommodation. Long Reach Hospital was erected in 1901 in the face of the smallpox epidemic of that year. Designed by A. & C. Harston, it was built of timber, and comprised a series of detached single-storey ward pavilions. Some of these were replaced by permanent buildings in 1928. Despite the flooding of the area in 1953 the hospital remained in use until 1975 when the  site was cleared to make way for a new flood barrier.

Orchard Hospital (largely demolished) TQ 543 768 BF101209. This temporary smallpox hospital was established by the Metropolitan Asylums Board (MAB) in 1902. It was designed by the Board’s architects, A. & C. Harston, and provided 800 beds in single-storeyed hutted ward pavilions. It was never used for smallpox cases, but was adapted as a general fever hospital and used fitfully until it was largely destroyed by bombs in the Second World War.

West Hill Hospital (Dartford Union Workhouse; King Edward Hospital). A rare example of an intact early-nineteenth-century workhouse, built about 1838, with a detached chapel, added in 1878, and two infirmary blocks of 1887-97. Further additions, including more ward blocks, a kitchen block and a nurses’ home, were made at the turn of the century. In 1913 the site was renamed the King Edward Hospital, and two further medical blocks and a new nurses’ home were added in the 1930s. Renamed West Hill Hospital under the National Health Service (NHS), the complex has many post-1948 additions, and the original workhouse blocks have been sold and converted to offices. TQ 538 743 101216

DEAL

North Barracks Hospital (Royal Military Hospital) TR 375 517 90875

Royal Marines School of Music, East Barracks, Dover Road (Royal Naval Hospital).TR 376 513 BF101317

The present building was built as the Deal Naval Hospital in 1812, replacing an earlier hospital which was demolished after it had been badly damaged by lightening in a thunderstorm in 1809. Although a plan for the hospital by Ambrose Poynter of about 1817 exists in the RIBA drawings collection, it seems unlikely that he had designed the buildings. Poynter was born in 1796 and worked in John Nash’s office from 1814-18, but there is no record of Nash having worked for the Navy at Deal. The only other possible link could be with Poynter’s father, Ambrose Lyon Poynter, who was a surgeon and might have had a connection with the hospital. The building comprised a three storeyed L-plan block, with its main front facing the sea to the east. There were a series of wards which had opposing windows on all three floors and an operating theatre in a semi-circular projection to the rear of the main wing. In detached blocks to the west of the main hospital were the kitchen, a dispensary and a building which contained the mortuary and lunatic cells. The hospital was eventually superseded by a new building in 1901 and the original building was renamed the East Barracks.

Victoria Hospital, London Road (Deal and Walmer War Memorial Hospital). TR 368 522 BF101316

A hospital was established in Deal as early as 1861 but by the 1920s the local residents had contributed sufficient funds to build a new hospital as a War Memorial. Adams, Holden and Pearson drew up the plans for the building which was erected in 1923. It was a one- and two-storeyed building of brick with two wards for adults, a small children’s ward and single rooms for paying patients. There was also an octagonal operating theatre. Minor extensions were made by the same architects in the 1930s and a new nurses’ home built to the north. The hospital was transferred to the National Health Service in 1948 and continued in 1992 to function as a small general hospital

DOVER

Dover Infectious Diseases Hospital TR 306 419 102792

Royal Victoria Hospital, High Street (Dover Hospital). TR 314 418 BF101318 A small general hospital, originally founded in 1828 as a dispensary. In 1850 the institution acquired a disused stucco-fronted classical house on the High Street, which had been erected in c.1834 for a local paper-maker, and reopened in 1851 as a hospital.

A two-storey brick ward wing was added in 1888-9, designed by a Mr Grant of Sittingbourne Local Board. Subsequent additions include: an out-patients’ department (1901), designed in a restrained Arts Nouveau style by Rowland Plumbe; a nurses’ home (1915); and another two-storey brick ward wing (1933). The hospital closed in 1987 and was scheduled for redevelopment.

DOWNSWOOD

West Kent General Hospital TQ 764 559 101437

EASTRY

Betteshanger Cottage Hospital TR 308 545 BF101426. Erected in 1879 at south end of Betteshanger village. This was used for the treatment of the poor of both sexes in cases of temporary illness. Later used as a convalescent home for patients from neighbouring parishes. It had 8 beds by 1913.

EDENBRIDGE

Edenbridge and District Cottage Hospital TQ 440 460 101428

Edenbridge and District War Memorial Hospital T Q 445 454 101427

FAVERSHAM

Faversham Cottage Hospital TR 015 613 101433

FOLKESTONE

Alfred Bevan Memorial Convalescent Home (Beach Rocks Hospital) TR 200 350 101438

Enbrook House, High Street TR 205 354. The east wing and principal front of the house are all that survive of the house built on the site by S S Teulon between 1853 and 1855. This house was built for the Honourable J D Bligh on the site of an earlier smaller house. The house was built in Gothic style and was one of Teulon’s most important secular commissions. The house was known as Chichester House until 1911. The building was sold in 1920 for use as a Star and Garter Convalescent Home for soldiers wounded in the First World War. Sir Edwin Cooper designed the new home, between 1924 and 1928, in Cape Colonial style. The building is of squared and coursed ragstone with Caen freestone dressings, the roof is tiled with alternate 3 bands of plain and 3 bands of fishscale tiles. The house later became a Police Training College, a further change of use occurred in 1977 when the house became the offices of Saga. The site was sold for a housing development in 1988, but was abandoned in 1990. Saga bought the site again in 1993 and planned to demolish the house to build a new headquarters building.

Folkestone Borough Sanatorium for Infectious Diseases TR 230 300 102794

Royal Victoria Hospital, Radnor Park (Victoria Hospital). TR 222 366 BF101319

A small general hospital, designed by Joseph Gardner in 1889 but built in phases. The central section, containing administrative offices, general and private wards, opened in 1890, and was supplemented by a ward wing designed by H. Percy Adams and built in 1900-2. Further ward wings were added in 1910 and 1927, and a nurses’ home and private block were built in 1921-3. All the buildings are of red brick with dressings of stone.

GILLINGHAM

Medway Hospital (part demolished), Windmill Road (Royal Naval Hospital). TQ 770 676 BF101366.

This large, pavilion-plan hospital was erected in 1899-1905 as the new Royal Naval Hospital to replace the original hospital at Chatham. It was designed by John T. C. Murray and comprised a large general hospital, a separate isolation hospital, the usual service buildings, a chapel and staff houses.

A number of these buildings have been demolished since the hospital was taken over by the National Health Service in 1961.

GRAVESEND

Gravesend and North Kent Hospital, Bath Street (Gravesend Hospital). TQ 644 743 BF101368 Gravesend Hospital was founded as a dispensary in 1850, to which in-patients were first admitted in 1854 when eight beds were provided. During the 1860s it moved to its present site and gradually expanded into a large general hospital; including an isolation block comprising two circular wards, added in 1887.

St James’s Hospital (Gravesend and Milton Union Workhouse) TQ 644 736 100686

HAWKHURST

Hawkhurst Cottage Hospital (Hawkhurst Village Hospital) TQ 745 307 101429

HERNE BAY

Herne Hospital, Canterbury Road (Blean Union Workhouse). TR 176 652 BF101179 An early union workhouse, erected in 1835, and comprising four two-storey ranges of yellow stock brick around a central quadrangle.

A particularly grim institution, even for its type, it was originally built without outside drains, and, in the interests of security, without any windows in the external walls. The major architectural feature was its free-standing water tower.

Later additions and improvements include a combined chapel and dining-hall in a central spine, and two detached ward blocks erected in 1874-5 – one is a two-storey block for general patients, the other a single-storey isolation block; both are of stock brick.

Passmore Edwards Convalescent Home for Friendly Societies TR 170 670 BF101435. Three-storey convalescent home built between 1897 and 1899. Housing fifty male patients and of Canterbury red brick, stone dressings and a tile roof it was designed by A Saxon Snell and erected by Messrs Wall and Co of London

Passmore Edwards Convalescent Home for Railwaymen TR 190 680 101434

Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital (Queen Victoria Memorial Cottage Hospital) TR 188 679 101436

HOTHFIELD

Lakeside Court Nursing Home (part demolished) (West Ashford Union Workhouse). TQ 968 464 BF101324

A brick, largely two-storeyed workhouse built by the West Ashford Union in c.1835. There is a detached infirmary of temporary construction to the north-west, possibly added at the turn of the century. Some of the original buildings have been demolished; those remaining have been modernized and converted into a nursing home.

LENHAM

Kent County Sanatorium TQ 924 523 101325

LEYBOURNE

Leybourne Grange (Leybourne Grange Colony for Mental Defectives) TQ 677 594 101223

LYMINGE

St Mary’s Hospital, Etchinghill (Elham Union Workhouse). TR 167 393 BF101320 Kelly’s Directory gives two different dates for the erection of the workhouse at Etchinghill: 1835 and 1845. A number of additions were made to the site, notably by Joseph Gardner of Folkestone and John Ladds of London in the 1890s. These included additions to the casual wards, a new administration block, infirmary and chapel.

A further infirmary block was added in 1912. The buildings on the site are all of brick and of functional appearance – decoration was reserved for the new administration block and chapel. In 1948 the buildings were taken over by the National Health Service and latterly it operated as a geriatric hospital.

MAIDSTONE

Kent County Ophthalmic and Aural Hospital, Church Street (Kent County Ophthalmic Hospital). TQ 764 558 101220

A provincial eye hospital, built c.1852 to designs by John Whichcord to replace an earlier building on the same site. A two-storey Tudor-style building, of Kentish ragstone, Whichcord’s hospital was later extended to include a chapel, an out-patients’ department, and various specialist departments.

MARGATE

Danepark Nursing Home, Wilderness Road (Princess Mary’s Hospital for Children; Princess Mary’s Convalescent Home). TR 361 709 BF101143 Originally a hospital for children suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis, provided by the Metropolitan Asylums Board and opened in 1898 in a converted children’s convalescent home. The hospital was extended in 1901, 1903, and again in 1919, when special south-facing ‘veranda wards’ and ‘sun platforms’ were provided for the children.

In the 1930s the hospital, then administered by the London County Council (LCC), was converted to a hospital for convalescent women and renamed Princess Mary’s Convalescent Home. Among alterations was the construction of a large red-brick dormitory block, of c.1938, designed by E. P. Wheeler, the LCC’s chief architect.

This later became a rehabilitation hospital and in 1992 it was a private nursing home, known as Danepark Nursing Home. Some of the original children’s hospital buildings were still owned by the local health authority in the early 1990s and used by them as stores and workshops.

Margate Cottage Hospital, 60 Victoria Road. TR 356 704 BF101145

A small cottage hospital established in 1876. The original architect to the hospital was Mr. Drew. Most of the existing building was designed by W. John Mercer. The building has been converted into flats.

Royal Sea Bathing Hospital, Canterbury Road (Margate Infirmary for the Relief of the Poor; Royal Sea Bathing Infirmary).TR 343 705 BF101142

The Royal Sea Bathing Hospital, Margate, was a pioneer hospital in the use of open-air treatment for patients suffering from tubercular complaints. It was founded in 1791 for the scrofulous poor of London by Dr John Coakley Lettsom, a Quaker physician and an exponent of treatment by sunshine, fresh air and sea bathing. A building was erected at Margate in 1793-6. Designed by the Rev. John Pridden, another of the hospital’s founders, its construction, featuring colonnades for patients to sleep in the open air, embodied Lettsom’s principles and anticipated by more than a century the open-air treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis. This original building, though greatly altered, remains in the quadrangle behind the present entrance. Further wings were added to the north and south in the early nineteenth century and by c.1853 the hospital had become a handsome, two-storey H-plan block, in an elegant Greek revival style. The additions included, on the west front, a monumental Doric portico rumoured to have been salvaged from the ruins of Lord Holland’s villa at Kingsgate, nearby. Short, single-storey wings for children were added in 1857-8. A gift of £30,000 from Erasmus Wilson, President of the Royal College of Surgeons and director of the hospital, allowed for the erection of a large new ward wing, an indoor heated salt-water swimming pool, and a chapel. The new buildings, of red and black brick with stone dressings, were designed by James Knowles junior. The ward wing featured a rooftop promenade, with an attractive terracotta balustrade, and the chapel was a particularly fine work, with an elaborate scheme of interior decoration on the general theme of healing. The new buildings were situated to the west of the existing hospital, thus forming an enclosed quadrangle where patients could take the air, and necessitating the removal of the Doric portico to the south front. Subsequent additions include a further ward wing, the King George V Wing, of 1919-20, and a nurses’ home, erected in 1922 and enlarged in 1935.

Summerlands Lodge, 123 Canterbury Road. Former preparatory school for boys, built 1906, later convalescent home, then head office, and more recently a nursing home.

Thanet District Hospital, St Peter’s Road (Margate and District General Hospital).TR 360 698 BF101146

A medium-sized general hospital, designed by Adams, Holden & Pearson and built in 1928-30. It is a stylish, neo-Georgian H-block, well-constructed and faced with hand-made local bricks. There have been many subsequent additions, but the original building retains its integrity.

Westbrook Day Centre, Canterbury Road (Westgate Day Hospital and Victoria House). TR 337 702 101138  A small turn-of-the-century hospital, perhaps originally a cottage hospital, of red brick, in a neo-Georgian style. It is now a day hospital for geriatrics and a younger disabled unit.

NEW ROMNEY

Littlestone Convalescent Home (Creedy House Care Home), Nether Avenue

PEMBURY

Pembury Hospital (Tonbridge Union Workhouse; Kent County Hospital) TQ 615 413 100689

RAMSGATE

Haine Hospital (Isle of Thanet JHB Isolation Hospital) TR 362 677 BF101147

Ramsgate Hospital (Seamen’s Infirmary; Ramsgate Seamen’s Infirmary and General Hospital) TR 377 646 BF101149

ROCHESTER

Fort Pitt Military Hospital TQ 750 675 100722 For information on the cemetery at Fort Pitt Hospital see Historic Medway

St Bartholomew’s Hospital, New Road. TQ 752 678 BF101365 Originally founded in 1078 by Gundulph, Bishop of Rochester, for the poor and leprous of the district, the hospital was rebuilt in 1861-3 to designs by R. P. Pope: the only reminders of its medieval origins are the twelfth-century remains at the east end of the nearby hospital chapel, restored and rebuilt by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the later nineteenth century.

The new hospital was a long, two-storey building, of red brick with stone dressings, comprising a central administrative section with flanking ward wings. There was also an out-patients’ department and dispensary at the rear. Subsequent alterations and additions at the site included the conversion of a nearby brewery watertower for use as a pathological laboratory (1900-5); and the erection of a detached home for nurses (1902-5, extended 1937), the latter designed by G. E. Bond, a local architect. For more information and photographs see also Historic Medway

St William’s Hospital, St William’s Way (Chatham and Rochester Joint Infectious Diseases Hospital). TQ 748 666 BF101367 This small infectious diseases hospital was designed by G. J. Skipper, of Norwich, and was erected on a site on the outskirts of town in 1882-3.

It originally comprised a three-storey administration block connected by a covered way to two single-storey ward pavilions, with a smaller, detached ward block, laundry and mortuary, all of plain white brick. A large, two-storey convalescent block, designed by George E. Bond, was built in c.1900, and a gate lodge and cubicle block were added to the site c.1927.

ROYAL TUNBRIDGE WELLS

Kent and Sussex Hospital, Mount Ephraim.  TQ 582 399 BF101357 A large general hospital, built on the outskirts of town in 1932-4 to replace earlier general and eye hospitals. Designed by Cecil Burns, FRIBA, and constructed by John Jarvis, a local contractor, the new hospital comprised a main block, for administration, casualty, out-patients’ and other departments, with two long ward wings stretching southwards from either end. A separate nurses’ home was attached to the main buildings by a bridge and stepped covered way.

All the buildings were of reinforced concrete construction, with brick infilling, the layers of horizontal concrete members dominating the elevations. The most striking features of the design were the south-facing covered sun balconies at the ends of the wards, each connected with the others by spiral reinforced concrete ramps, supported by cantilevers.

Tunbridge Wells General Hospital TQ 584 398 101538

Tunbridge Wells Homoeopathic Hospital (Tunbridge Wells Homoeopathic Hospital and Dispensary) TQ 583 394 101358

SEVENOAKS

Emily Jackson Hospital (largely demolished), Eardley Road (Children’s Hospital for the Treatment of Hip Disease). TQ 526 552 BF101356 This specialist hospital was built on high ground outside central Sevenoaks in 1901-2, replacing earlier converted premises nearby (the institution was founded in 1872).

The architect of the new hospital was Thomas Graham Jackson, brother of the founder, Miss Emily Jackson. He designed a half-butterfly plan building, comprising a central three-storey administration block flanked by south-facing, angled, single-storey ward wings. The wings originally had covered verandas for use in fine weather. The hospital closed and was partially destroyed by fire c.1990.

Sevenoaks Hospital, St John’s Hill (Holmesdale Cottage Hospital).  TQ 531 566 101354 Founded in 1866 as a cottage hospital, this sprawling small general hospital still contained in its midst the building erected in 1872 to the designs of John M. Hooker. This was first extensively remodelled in 1921-2 to plans drawn up by William Pite before the outbreak of the First World War.

A great many additions and alterations were made subsequently, completely obscuring the original building and the 1920s re-building. In 1933 a nurses’ home opened on a nearby site. The hospital was transferred to the National Health Service in 1948 and remains in use as a general hospital.

Sevenoaks Isolation Hospital, Oak Lane (The Croft). TQ 519 529 101355

This small isolation hospital, designed by W. H. Ansell of London, comprised an administration building, two single-storeyed ward blocks, and a combined laundry, mortuary and ambulance shed. It was built in 1902 and provided twelve beds. The administration building was extended in 1939.

SHEERNESS

Sheerness Military Hospital TQ 916 749 100919

SITTINGBOURNE

Sittingbourne Memorial Hospital TQ 907 631 101439

STONE

Stone House Hospital (City of London Lunatic Asylum) TQ 561 741 101214

SWANLEY

Hospital Convalescent Home (Parkwood Convalescent Home) TQ 530 680 BF101440. A 3-storey convalescent home with administration block, 2 male ward blocks to the west and 1 female ward block to the east. A chapel is connected by covered way. Lower floors faced with stock bricks and upper floors with weather tiling.

Kettlewell Convalescent Home TQ 513 687

White Oak Hospital (White Oak School) TQ 512 688  101597 see workhouses.org for information and a history of this building

TONBRIDGE

Tonbridge Cottage Hospital (Tonbridge UD Infectious Diseases Hospital) TQ 592 447 102791

Queen Victoria Cottage Hospital TQ 584 452 101442

WHITSTABLE

Whitstable and Tankerton Hospital, Northwood Road (Whitstable and Tankerton Cottage and Convalescent Hospital). A small cottage hospital built in 1926. It provided twenty-five beds and included accommodation for convalescent patients. The two-storeyed building of brick and render was later extended to provide an additional twenty beds. It was transferred to the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948 and was latterly in use as a geriatric and acute hospital. TR 125 668 101180

WILMINGTON

Kettlewell Convalescent Home TQ 530 730 101441

WROTHAM

Cecil Cragg Cottage Hospital TQ 620 590 101443