St Martin’s Hospital in Kent has been described as being “truly remnant of the asylums of the early nineteen hundreds” and walking around this 129 year old building you can see why. With Victorian corridors spanning tens of metres and old wards with the original sashed windows, this building has reached the end of its life as a hospital, but stands as a fantastic example of an early 20th century mental hospital.
When Canterbury was designated as a County Borough in 1889, it was required to provide facilities to care for people who were mentally ill, which at the time meant building an asylum as required by law under the Lunacy Act 1890.
A site was purchased which already had a manor house there; this was later used for accommodation for private female patients. As Canterbury was a small area there was no requirement for a big asylum and Canterbury Asylum, as it was known, was designed for around 250 beds – in comparison Severalls Hospital in Colchester had 2,000 beds.
The building design was based on a compact arrow layout with the main services in the centre of the site and male and female wards to the east and west, connected by a network of corridors, making it quicker for staff to get around.
After the First World War changing attitudes saw the term ‘asylum’ dropped from a number of hospitals and this site was renamed to Canterbury City Mental Hospital. The name changed again after the Second World War to St Martin’s, named after a local church. This also saw a big change in the hospital administration as management was merged with St Augustine’s Hospital which saw St Martin’s primarily becoming a short stay site.
During the Second World War the hospital was bombed, causing damage to the original manor house, admin building and the laundry facilities, resulting in these being demolished. Few other significant changes were made over the coming years however additional ‘temporary’ buildings were added to both the male and female sides and still remain.
The Care in the Community Act (1990) saw hospitals like this close their doors. St Augustine’s closed in 1993 and new buildings were constructed to the east of St Martin’s, which saw patient numbers decline until it was closed and later sold to Homes England in 2019.
Kent Live reports that 200 homes are embarked for the former hospital however some parts of the building will be retained.
Photos
You can view our full set of photos here on our Facebook Page.
Sources: County Asylums, Wikipedia, Kent Live
