Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

One of three hospitals, collectively known as the River Hospitals, built in the area of Joyce Green and the River Thames. Originally built in 1903 as a smallpox hospital it later became a general fever hospital until the outbreak of the Second World War when it became a general hospital under the Emergency Medical Scheme. It transferred to the NHS in 1948 and closed in 2000. The site will be redeveloped and the hospital buildings demolished.

Monument Types

• INFECTIOUS DISEASES HOSPITAL (Altered, Modern - 1903 AD to 1939 AD?)
• GENERAL HOSPITAL (Closed, Modern - 1939 AD to 2000 AD)

Full description

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Joyce Green Hospital, nr Dartford TQ 546 760. Mental hospital built and opened in 1903. (2)

One of three hospitals collectively known as the River Hospitals built in the area of Joyce Green and the River Thames. Originally built in 1903 by the Metropolitan Asylums Board (architects A & C Harston) as a smallpox hospital. It had an ecehelon plan arrangement of 22 2-storey ward blocks for 938 beds linked by covered ways with service and admin buildings set on the N side of the complex. Seperate isolation blocks, modest stewards house, water tower and admin building. Later it became a general fever hospital until the outbreak of the Second World War when it became a general hospital under the Emergency Medical Scheme. A tramway (TQ 57 NW 102) linked it to the Thames and the other river hospitals. It transferred to the NHS in 1948 and closed in 2000. The site will be redeveloped and the hospital buildings demolished.(1)

Royal Commission on Historic Monuments in England, 1994, Joyce Green Hospital, Joyce Green Lane, Dartford (Unpublished document). SWX6961.

Museum of London Archaeology Service, 1994 Jun, University Of Greenwich, N Dartford Campus, Joyce Green - (Unpublished document). SWX6908.

Hazel Basford, 2004, Kent VAD - the work of voluntary aid detachments in Kent during the first World War (Unpublished document). SKE31644.

<1> RCHME, 1993, Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England: Compilation of Kent Hospitals Record Sheets (Unpublished document). SKE6841.

Sources and further reading

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