The Royal Naval Hospital, Stonehouse was a medical facility for naval officers and other ranks at
Stonehouse, Plymouth
East Stonehouse was one of three towns that were amalgamated into modern-day Plymouth. West Stonehouse was a village that is within the current Mount Edgcumbe Country Park in Cornwall. It was destroyed by the French in 1350.
The terminology us ...
.
History
![Former Royal Naval Hospital, High Street, Plymouth (geograph 6083123)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Former_Royal_Naval_Hospital%2C_High_Street%2C_Plymouth_%28geograph_6083123%29.jpg)
The
naval hospital was built between 1758 and 1765 to a design by the little-known Alexander Rovehead. The design was influential in its time: its pattern of detached wards (arranged so as to maximise ventilation and minimise spread of infection) foreshadows the 'pavilion' style of hospital building which was popularised by
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale (; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English Reform movement, social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during t ...
a century later. The site for the hospital was formerly known as the mill fields (after the nearby
tide mill
A tide mill is a water mill driven by tidal rise and fall. A dam with a sluice is created across a suitable tidal inlet, or a section of river estuary is made into a reservoir. As the tide comes in, it enters the mill pond through a one-way gate ...
s on
Stonehouse Creek).
Towards the end of the century,
Stoke Military Hospital
Stoke Military Hospital was an British Military Hospital, army medical facility in Plymouth, England.
History
The facility, which was sited on the north side of Stonehouse Creek, was designed for use by the British Army and styled to match the Ro ...
was built by the
Army
An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
, facing the naval hospital directly across the creek.
The hospital closed in 1995; it is now a gated residential complex called The Millfields. The site contains over 20
listed buildings
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
and structures.
Description
The hospital housed 1,200 patients in sixty wards, its ten ward blocks being arranged around a courtyard with a central block containing the
chapel
A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...
,
dispensary
A dispensary is an office in a school, hospital, industrial plant, or other organization that dispenses medications, medical supplies, and in some cases even medical and dental treatment. In a traditional dispensary set-up, a pharmacist dispen ...
and staff housing. Patients were landed directly from Stonehouse Creek (now playing fields) where the remains of a jetty can still be seen, flanked by stone steps which formerly descended into the creek; from here an entrance arch led to receiving wards (with a bath room and a clothing store) where new arrivals were washed and provided with clean bedclothes.
Until the mid-1790s there was no separate
operating theatre
An operating theater (also known as an operating room (OR), operating suite, or operation suite) is a facility within a hospital where surgical operations are carried out in an aseptic environment.
Historically, the term "operating theater" refe ...
in the hospitals; surgery was performed in the wards (much to the 'offence' of other patients, according to contemporary reports).
Later, an operating room was set up in one of the four single-story blocks which interspersed the ward blocks on the north and south side of the quadrangle (these fulfilled various roles over the course of the hospital's history, including serving at times, variously, as a cookhouse, a
victualling room, a
smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
ward and a
lunatic
Lunatic is an antiquated term referring to a person who is seen as mentally ill, dangerous, foolish, or crazy—conditions once attributed to "lunacy". The word derives from ''lunaticus'' meaning "of the moon" or "moonstruck".
History
The ter ...
ward).
West of the main quadrangle, facing the central block with its cupola, Rovehead built a
pedimented
Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape.
Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds.
A pediment ...
terrace of houses, providing accommodation for senior officials (the surgeon, the physician, the steward and the agent), beyond which were stables and houses for two clerks. Later, following the appointment of a Governor to the hospital in 1795, a pair of larger houses were built, facing each other either side of the terrace so as to create a smaller quadrangle; Directly opposite the water gate (with its jetty) was the main entrance from the street, which was flanked by a pair of lodges which provided accommodation for officers of the
Royal Marine
The Corps of Royal Marines (RM), also known as the Royal Marines Commandos, are the UK's special operations capable commando force, amphibious light infantry and also one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy. The Corps of Royal Marine ...
detachment which provided a guard for the Hospital; the Marines themselves were accommodated in a small
barracks
Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are u ...
just outside the gate, similar in design to the nearby (and near-contemporary)
Stonehouse Royal Marine Barracks. Later, police took over guard duty, and the barracks became a police station.
A water tower on the edge of the site provided a pressured supply to the wards and to water closets around the site: an early example of a pressurised water sanitation system.
In 1826 a burial ground was established on a parcel of land to the north-east of the hospital site, and a gate was opened in the boundary wall (by the water tower) to provide access; later a
mortuary chapel
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be consid ...
was built, just inside the gate.
A new hospital chapel was provided in 1883 with the dedication Church of the Good Shepherd, placed east of the main quadrangle on the main east-west axis.
Historic England Grade II listing: Former Royal Naval Hospital: The Church of the Good Shepherd
/ref> At around the same time, the wash house on the northern edge of the site was expanded to serve as a laundry, with the addition of a sizeable boiler house alongside. A significant expansion of facilities within the site took place from 1898-1906, with the addition of a sick officers' quarters beyond the chapel, staff quarters alongside it, a row of four zymotic ward blocks just north-east of the main quadrangle and a new dispensary (along with a house for the chief pharmacist
A pharmacist, also known as a chemist (Commonwealth English) or a druggist (North American and, archaically, Commonwealth English), is a healthcare professional who prepares, controls and distributes medicines and provides advice and instructi ...
)
near the water gate. All these were built using distinctive yellow brick, which contrasts with the Plymouth limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
of the earlier buildings on the site.
References
{{authority control
Defunct hospitals in England
Hospitals in Devon
Military hospitals in the United Kingdom
Royal Navy Medical Service