# St. Augustine's Hospital, Chartham - February 2010



## urbex13 (Feb 15, 2010)

Following a somewhat succesful trip to sites around Surrey we (myself and two friends) decided to pick up St. Augustine's Hospital on the return journey back through Kent. Only my second report, creative criticism is welcome  

*History*

The construction of St. Augustine's Hospital, Chartham commenced in 1872 and the hospital opened in 1875. The hopital closed after 117 years in 1992. The hospital was designed by John Giles & Gough (who also designed the Mid Wales Asylum at Talgarth among others) and follows the Corridor-Pavillion . The hospital site now stands largely redeveloped into housing, with the listed features (the chapel, the water tower and the administration block as well as some other original buildings) preserved. Offset from the rest of the site are four more buildings (please give me details as to precise use?) which we explored today.

A couple of externals:

1. 





2. 




Just a sample corridor shot:

3. 




One of a very small number of interior details remaining:

4. 




Another corridor shot:






18 years of peeling paint:

6. 




Silhouettes:

7. 




Another portrait:

8. 




The gym, came as quite a suprise:

9. 




A selection of vintage soft drinks:

10. 




Hope you like,

13


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## Nocturno (Feb 15, 2010)

Haven't seen a tin of Tizer for a few years. Wonder if they still make that stuff?

Nice shots, especially the silhouettes and peeling paint. Will definitely be paying a visit sooner rather than later. I've never seen the gym in any previous reports; it looks remarkably well preserved in contrast with the sorry state of the corridors.

Must have been a long night but looks like a productive one. Good work!

N


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## urbex13 (Feb 15, 2010)

Thanks Nocturno, this was a daytime visit 
The building the gym was in confused me a tad,
It was definately a school of some sort,
there was a headmasters office and blackboards etc.
But it must be of some relevance to the hospital as it
sits between two of what I believed to be the isolation wards.

13


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## Nocturno (Feb 15, 2010)

Ah...Thought maybe you'd pulled an all-nighter and dropped by in the morning on the way back from West Park etc.

Anyway, nice set of pics. I'll have do do a bit of research before I get up there, see what I can find out about that school building.

N


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## urbex13 (Feb 16, 2010)

Sorry I just re-read and understood what you meant 
Yeah we did Pyestock, West Park, Nutborune Brickworks, Uni of Kent Rochester and then this.

13.


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## cagedangel (Feb 20, 2010)

nice pics
we went there a little while ago
did you see the other buildings across the way near the sports hall??
we couldn't get into them as they where sealed up pretty good

did you hear or see anything wierd in the kitchen area as we did

:icon_evil


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## JohnJones (Feb 20, 2010)

Great pics!


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## urbex13 (Feb 20, 2010)

CagedAngel, I think we did everything left on site 
JohnJones thanks, I know the tonemapping is a bit heavy but
that's what you get when you've got colour deficiant vision 
13.


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## Pete (Feb 23, 2010)

urbex13 said:


> Thanks Nocturno, this was a daytime visit
> The building the gym was in confused me a tad,
> It was definately a school of some sort,
> there was a headmasters office and blackboards etc.
> ...





urbex13 said:


> Following a somewhat succesful trip to sites around Surrey we (myself and two friends) decided to pick up St. Augustine's Hospital on the return journey back through Kent. Only my second report, creative criticism is welcome
> 
> *History*
> 
> ...



The buildings on this area of the St. Augustine's site were not built for isolation purposes. The largest of the 1930's blocks was called Oak house and was constructed as an admission building for the main hospital, and the two villas (Juniper and Redwood) were for male and female convalescent patients. This part of the hospital was turned over to use by the war dept. during WWII as a neurological rehabilitation unit. Beech house school is the 1970's structure with the sports hall and was constructed as a part-residential special school and was operated by Kent County Council. Redwood and Juniper were annexed to beech house school and used for boarding students. Oak house was later converted to use as a central stores distribution centre for the hospitals in the area.


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## urbex13 (Feb 24, 2010)

Thankyou, that ties up all the loose ends for me
I think I read the above information elsewhere
And it didn't seem to add up

Thanks Pete ,

13.


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## badwabbit (Mar 21, 2010)

Pete said:


> The buildings on this area of the St. Augustine's site were not built for isolation purposes. The largest of the 1930's blocks was called Oak house and was constructed as an admission building for the main hospital



I've put up my first report of St. Augustines here (I'm quoting this for info purposes only): [ame="http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=48477"]St. Augustines Report[/ame]

From the development principles from the local council (which I link to in my report), they mention that Oak House was originally built as a specialist spinal unit - but thanks for the additional info, that's interesting.



Pete said:


> and the two villas (Juniper and Redwood) were for male and female convalescent patients. This part of the hospital was turned over to use by the war dept. during WWII as a neurological rehabilitation unit. Beech house school is the 1970's structure with the sports hall and was constructed as a part-residential special school and was operated by Kent County Council. Redwood and Juniper were annexed to beech house school and used for boarding students. Oak house was later converted to use as a central stores distribution centre for the hospitals in the area.



Great info - thanks for that!


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## Pete (Mar 23, 2010)

badwabbit said:


> I've put up my first report of St. Augustines here (I'm quoting this for info purposes only): St. Augustines Report
> 
> From the development principles from the local council (which I link to in my report), they mention that Oak House was originally built as a specialist spinal unit - but thanks for the additional info, that's interesting.



The development briefs are a little ambiguous and intended as a guide for planning purposes. According to the adminitrative history submitted to the National Archives by the East Kent Archives:


> 1939- Admission block and two convalescent villas were built at a cost of £60,000. These were taken over in 1940 and used as a military hospital.


 http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=2006-mht3&cid=-1#-1
It was during this requesitioned period that Oak house became a spinal injuries unit, rather than having built for this purpose.

Pete


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## badwabbit (Mar 23, 2010)

Thanks - yeah, I had read the national archives link a while ago but had forgotten those details. Makes sense.


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