Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Grade II listed building. Main construction periods 1793 to 1900

Summary from record TR 37 SW 38:

The hospital was erected close to the sea front in 1793-6 and designed by the Rev. J. Pridden, one of the founders, featuring colonnades for patients to sleep in the open air as part of their treatment. Additions were made to the building throughout the 19th century designed by James Knowles Jnr. These included a heated indoor salt water pool, new wards and a chapel. A monumental Doric portico added to the hospital is believed to have possibly come from the ruins of Lord Holland's villa at nearby Kingsgate. During the First World War British and Belgian servicemen suffering from TB and shellshock were treated at the hospital and this TB treatment continued after the war for discharged soldiers in new wing extension called the King George V Wing opened in 1920. In the early 1990's the hospitals facilities were moved to the Thanet District Hospital and the Royal Sea Hospital closed down. It is currently empty although development proposals have been suggested.

Civilian hospital with 50 beds for military patients, c.1914-1918

Monument Types

• SANATORIUM (Post Medieval to Modern - 1793 AD to 1992 AD? (between))
• SITE (Post Medieval - 1793 AD to 1900 AD)
• (Alternate Type) HOSPITAL (Modern - 1914 AD to 1918 AD (at some time))

Full description

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The following text is from the original listed building designation:
TR 37 SW MARGATE CANTERBURY ROAD
878/10/10016 Royal Sea Bathing Hospital
22.02.1973
GV II
Former sea bathing hospital. 1793-6 by the Revd. John Pridden, one of the hospital's founders, with additions of 1816, c1820, c1853, 1857-8, c1880 by James Knowles Jnr. Early buildings of yellow stock brick with stone dressings; hipped slated roof. Knowles additions of red and black brick with pink terracotta balustrades. The original block, greatly altered, remains in the quadrangle behind the present entrance forming the eastern arm. A southern, single storey wing was added 1816, the northern, 2-storey wing (facing the sea and forming one arm of an H) in the 1820s. c1853 the buildings were transformed into a handsome and uniform piece of Greek Revival classicism by raising the stories to 2 throughout and adding to the west-facing entrance front a monumental, tetrastyle Doric portico (the columns were said to have come from nearby Holland House, at Kingsgate). At the same time the north and south wings were added the 2 single-storey cross-plan extensions to the western ends of the north and south wings; these were designed as wards for children (northern, girls ward now raised to 2 storeys). James Knowles Jnr. Added the long, single-storey block of wards adjoining the old hospital to the west and thus forming an enclosed quadrangle in the centre. These are in red and black brick with a terracotta balustrade. As a result the Doric portico was moved to form a new entrance front to the south (1816) wing facing Canterbury Road. Adjoining the wards to the south was Knowles indoor, heated, salt-water swimming bath (now converted to a ward). This is a domestic style block in red and black brick with stone dressings, well-lit by 2 stories of windows. The current entrance front is a 2-storey block of 9 sash windows fronted by the Doric portico. The entablature is inscribed "Royal Sea Bath Hospital Founded 1791". Flanking this are two single storey pavilions, each with 2 sashes and an inscribed pediment; the left inscribed "1858", the right "1882". History: The Royal Sea Bathing Hospital 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. The new hospital was designed from the outset with open arcased and verandas for patients and anticipated by more than a century the open-air treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis. Initially the hospital was only open during the summer months, patients bathing actually in the sea from a bathing machine, but the addition of an indoor bath in 1858 allowed the wards to be open all year round. c1880 Sir Erasmus Wilson, President of the Royal College of Surgeons and director of the hospital gave o30,000 for the enlargement of the hospital which included Knowles ward wing, his indoor heated salt-water pool and chapel. Wards were only used for sleeping in during inclement weather, otherwise beds remained on the verandah day and night and the flat roof of Knowles' wing was used as a promenade. The hospital continued to treat surgical TB until the early 1950s when inprovements in treatment, preventative medicine and the unprecedented rise in the standard of living made TB an uncommon disease.
Listing NGR: TR3431070520

Description from record TR 37 SW 38:
The hospital was erected close to the sea front in 1793-6 and designed by the Rev. J. Pridden, one of the founders, featuring colonnades for patients to sleep in the open air as part of their treatment. Additions were made to the building throughout the 19th century designed by James Knowles Jnr. These included a heated indoor salt water pool, new wards and a chapel. A monumental Doric portico added to the hospital is believed to have possibly come from the ruins of Lord Holland's villa at nearby Kingsgate. During the First World War British and Belgian servicemen suffering from TB and shellshock were treated at the hospital and this TB treatment continued after the war for discharged soldiers in new wing extension called the King George V Wing opened in 1920. In the early 1990's the hospitals facilities were moved to the Thanet District Hospital and the Royal Sea Hospital closed down. It is currently empty although development proposals have been suggested. (1)

In 2005 Canterbury Archaeological Trust carried out an evaluation. Features relating to the hospital were located across the site, some possibly pre-dating or of very early phases of the hospital. Features certainly associated with the hospital included foundations for verandas, a ramp providing access to the sea and possible parts of the hospital's waterworks. (2)

Civilian hospital with 50 beds for military patients, c.1914-1918

English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

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

Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2006, The Royal Sea-Bathing Hospital, Canterbury Road, Margate: An Archaeological Survey of the Hospital Site and Buildings (Unpublished document). SKE17717.

<1> RCHME, 1993, Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England: Compilation of Kent Hospitals Record Sheets, nbr 101365 (Unpublished document). SKE6841.

<2> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2005, Report on Evaluation Trenching (Phase 1) at the Royal Sea Bathing Hospital, Margate, June 2005 (Unpublished document). SKE18188.

Sources and further reading

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