Royal Naval Hospital, Portland | |
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Geography | |
Location | Portland, England |
Coordinates | 50°33′57″N2°26′43″W / 50.5658°N 2.4452°W |
Organisation | |
Care system | NHS |
History | |
Opened | 1906 |
Closed | 1957 |
Links | |
Lists | Hospitals in England |
The Portland Royal Naval Hospital was a naval hospital on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, England. Portland Harbour was a naval anchorage and fuelling facility, which grew to become a Naval Base and Royal Dockyard. A RN Hospital was initially established in the dockyard area in the 1870s, which served until it was replaced by a new purpose-built naval hospital, located close to Castletown, at the beginning of the 20th century. [1] It closed in 1957, when it was handed over to the National Health Service, which still runs the hospital. It is now known as Portland Community Hospital. [2]
After completion of the southern breakwaters in 1872, a large building (within what later became the Royal Dockyard area) was converted into a hospital; By 1890 it consisted of two blocks, with 76 beds. [3] In the 1880s a separate R.N. Sick Quarters was laid out, between Castle Road and the Merchant's Railway; while in 1899-1900 a new zymotic (infectious diseases) hospital was built, just to the east of the Sick Quarters, on the opposite side of the incline. [4] [3]
With naval use of the harbour continuing to increase, plans were drawn up in 1901 for a new general hospital to be built at Castle Road (on higher ground directly south of the sick quarters). Completed by 1906, it was made up of an officers' block, administration block, kitchen, surgical block and medical block all linked by a covered walkway. [5] The nearby buildings of the R.N. Sick Quarters were converted or rebuilt to provide staff accommodation (and other ancillary facilities). Portland Hospital Halt, an un-timetabled station on the Easton and Church Hope Railway, provided railway access to the site. [6] Once the new hospital was open the old hospital buildings in the dockyard were converted into torpedo workshops. [3]
During World War II, an underground operating theatre was constructed. Along with the surgical block, it was the only section of the hospital to be in full-time operation. After suffering bomb damage in 1940, a decision was made for as many patients as possible to be moved to a less vulnerable site. Minterne House, located at Minterne Magna in Dorchester, was requisitioned for this purpose, leaving Portland's hospital to become a casualty and emergency hospital only. Despite this, it would receive 5,222 inpatients over the course of the war. [5]
The hospital became surplus to requirements and was handed over to the National Health Service in 1957. (At the same time the Isolation Hospital was closed and converted into married quarters for the Admiralty Constabulary). [4] The underground operating theatre, although rewired during 1954-5, was then stripped of much of its equipment. In 1996, the Portland Rotary were successful in gaining access to the theatre for a weekend of public tours. [5] Steel gates were then put on the tunnel entrances and the theatre has remained closed to the public since. [7]
The hospital remains in NHS use as Portland Community Hospital. Most of the Edwardian hospital buildings survived into the 1990s, but today only a single pavilion ward remains. [4]
By 2005, some out-buildings of the hospital site were demolished to make way for Foylebank Way, a residential area for the elderly above 55 years of age. This incorporates the old Principal Medical Officer's residence, formerly part of the R.N. Sick Quarters. [8]
Another surviving building from the Sick Quarters is the old Porter's Lodge and Mortuary complex, which today houses the Gatehouse Medical Centre. [3]
Gosport is a town and non-metropolitan borough, on the south coast of Hampshire, South East England. At the 2021 Census, its population was 81,952. Gosport is situated on a peninsula on the western side of Portsmouth Harbour, opposite the city of Portsmouth, to which it is linked by the Gosport Ferry. Gosport lies south-east of Fareham, to which it is linked by a Bus Rapid Transit route and the A32. Until the last quarter of the 20th century, Gosport was a major naval town associated with the defence and supply infrastructure of His Majesty's Naval Base (HMNB) Portsmouth. As such over the years extensive fortifications were created.
Portland Harbour is located beside the Isle of Portland, Dorset, on the south coast of England. Construction of the harbour began in 1849; when completed in 1872, its 520-hectare (1,300-acre) surface area made it the largest human-made harbour in the world, and it remains one of the largest in the world today. It is naturally sheltered by Portland to the south, Chesil Beach to the west and mainland Dorset to the north. It consists of four breakwaters: two southern and two northern. These have a total length of 4.57 km (2.84 mi) and enclose approximately 1,000 ha of water.
Royal Navy Dockyards were state-owned harbour facilities where ships of the Royal Navy were built, based, repaired and refitted. Until the mid-19th century the Royal Dockyards were the largest industrial complexes in Britain.
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Inner Pierhead Fort is a 19th-century fort built to defend Portland Harbour at the Isle of Portland, Dorset, England. It is positioned on the end of the inner breakwater, which abuts from the former dockyard of HMNB Portland. The fort was constructed between 1859-1862, and is 100 ft in diameter. The inner breakwater, including the fort, became Grade II Listed in 1978.
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