The Royal Victoria Hospital c.1900.
The Royal Victoria Hospital was built in
1850 as an act of thanksgiving by the town for having escaped
the cholera epidemic, which had claimed many lives in the
1840s. There had been a dispensary in the town since 1823
and it was decided to combine this with the new hospital.
£1,760 was raised by public subscription and a property
on the High Street known as Brook House was purchased and,
after some alteration was opened on 1st May 1851.
The new site adjoined land known as Wood’s
Meadow and in 1858 this was purchased for the hospital so
that it was not hemmed in by development and had room to
expand. Additions were made to the building in 1860 and
in the 1870s, with a new wing by 1890. In 1897 one of the
women’s wards was named ‘Victoria’ in honour of the Queen’s
Diamond Jubilee. In 1901 Edward VII gave permission for
the hospital to be called Royal Victoria after his mother.
In 1927 a Centenary Fund was started and
with the money raised another new wing was built in 1933.
At the outbreak of the Second
World War the patients were evacuated to Waldershare
Park Mansion and the hospital still dealt with casualties.
With the formation of the National Health
Service Buckland Hospital
gradually took over more and more eventually leaving just
a Stroke Unit and Geriatric Day Hospital. The hospital finally
closed its doors in May 1987 and spent a number of years
mouldering away until converted into low cost apartments
in the 1990s.
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