I was map surfing the Dartford area as I was going there on Saturday and noticed these buildings on the map just a little before the Wells Fireworks site. Further investigation led me to it being what remains of a very old hospital.
This place is a nightmare, very overgrown land littered with fly-tips. I couldn’t get to all of the buildings although I guess they were the same as the ones i did manage to get to. Thankfully I was wearing my “noisy trousers“ (perfect for exploring as they’re pretty much bramble and nettle proof but christ they’re noisy when walking).
Was it worth the effort? Probably not but it’s another glimpse at history before it gets totally swallowed up by nature. Sadly couldn’t find any evidence of the old tram tracks that I read were there.
History -
The Orchard Hospital was erected by the Metropolitan Asylums Board in the spring of 1902 to provide temporary extra accommodation during the smallpox epidemic which was then taking place. It was located on the banks of the Thames at Long Reach near Dartford, on a site to south of the MAB's hospital ships complex where another temporary smallpox hospital, the Long Reach, had opened earlier the same year. At the same time as the Orchard was being erected, a much larger permanent hospital, the Joyce Green, was under construction on an adjacent site to the south-east.
The Orchard was named after the former use of the land on which it was erected. Like the Long Reach, it was designed by MAB's architects A & C Harston. It could accommodate 664 patients who were accommodated in long rows of detached single-storey ward pavilions constructed from wood and iron and linked by a covered walkway. The hospital's location and layout are shown on the 1910 map below.
Patients were brought to the hospital by the MAB's river ambulance service which terminated at the Long Reach pier. A tramway was used to transfer patients between the pier and hospital in horse-drawn tram-cars purchased from the Harrow Road and Paddington Tramway Company.
After the 1902, the incidence of smallpox declined in London and the Orchard was little used. The Orchard site was lent to the War Office from 1915 to 1919 as a convalescent hospital for the use of overseas troops, mainly Australians.
No. 3 AUSTRALIAN AUXILIARY HOSPITAL
To the west of this point was located the Orchard Hospital, which became an Australian military hospital in October 1916, during the First World War. Between then and 1919, its capacity grew to more than 1,200 beds and approximately 62,000 wounded and sick Australian soldiers came me through the hospital, nursed by women from Australia and Britain. A bond of friendship was established between the Australians and the people of Dartford.
The hospital was visited by Australian Prime Minister William Hughes and at the end of the war, a captured German gun was transferred to the District Council in a ceremony in Central Park, attended by hospital staff and the commander of the Australian Corps, Lieutenant-General Sir John Monash.
...after everything has been done that honour will permit, Australians will stand beside the mother country to help and defend her to our last man and our last shilling. - Andrew Fisher, Australian statesman, July 1914
Edit -
as per the comments with @Wastelandr wondering if these were bomb shelters of some kind, I’ve had another google and found this info below. It has to be said, these buildings are rather small to have beds in them if they are part of the wards.
During WW2 the army made use of The Orchard, up until D-Day. Shortly after their departure in 1944, almost half of the wooden hospital buildings were destroyed by enemy bombing and fire. Some accounts say the damage was caused by an early V1 flying bomb.
About a dozen, single-storey brick buildings survived. These were subsequently reused as part of a pig farm, serving the nearby Joyce Green Hospital. These overgrown buildings are now deteriorating, and the entire site is naturally rewilding.
Although the hospital’s wooden, barrack-like huts are completely gone, their concrete foundations support lush growths of mosses, lichens and small plants. Trees and brambles have colonised the spaces between, creating tall barriers.
The hospital paths, including the line of a tramway, remain. They are mossy underfoot and hemmed in by nature.
This place is a nightmare, very overgrown land littered with fly-tips. I couldn’t get to all of the buildings although I guess they were the same as the ones i did manage to get to. Thankfully I was wearing my “noisy trousers“ (perfect for exploring as they’re pretty much bramble and nettle proof but christ they’re noisy when walking).
Was it worth the effort? Probably not but it’s another glimpse at history before it gets totally swallowed up by nature. Sadly couldn’t find any evidence of the old tram tracks that I read were there.
History -
The Orchard Hospital was erected by the Metropolitan Asylums Board in the spring of 1902 to provide temporary extra accommodation during the smallpox epidemic which was then taking place. It was located on the banks of the Thames at Long Reach near Dartford, on a site to south of the MAB's hospital ships complex where another temporary smallpox hospital, the Long Reach, had opened earlier the same year. At the same time as the Orchard was being erected, a much larger permanent hospital, the Joyce Green, was under construction on an adjacent site to the south-east.
The Orchard was named after the former use of the land on which it was erected. Like the Long Reach, it was designed by MAB's architects A & C Harston. It could accommodate 664 patients who were accommodated in long rows of detached single-storey ward pavilions constructed from wood and iron and linked by a covered walkway. The hospital's location and layout are shown on the 1910 map below.
Patients were brought to the hospital by the MAB's river ambulance service which terminated at the Long Reach pier. A tramway was used to transfer patients between the pier and hospital in horse-drawn tram-cars purchased from the Harrow Road and Paddington Tramway Company.
After the 1902, the incidence of smallpox declined in London and the Orchard was little used. The Orchard site was lent to the War Office from 1915 to 1919 as a convalescent hospital for the use of overseas troops, mainly Australians.
No. 3 AUSTRALIAN AUXILIARY HOSPITAL
To the west of this point was located the Orchard Hospital, which became an Australian military hospital in October 1916, during the First World War. Between then and 1919, its capacity grew to more than 1,200 beds and approximately 62,000 wounded and sick Australian soldiers came me through the hospital, nursed by women from Australia and Britain. A bond of friendship was established between the Australians and the people of Dartford.
The hospital was visited by Australian Prime Minister William Hughes and at the end of the war, a captured German gun was transferred to the District Council in a ceremony in Central Park, attended by hospital staff and the commander of the Australian Corps, Lieutenant-General Sir John Monash.
...after everything has been done that honour will permit, Australians will stand beside the mother country to help and defend her to our last man and our last shilling. - Andrew Fisher, Australian statesman, July 1914
Edit -
as per the comments with @Wastelandr wondering if these were bomb shelters of some kind, I’ve had another google and found this info below. It has to be said, these buildings are rather small to have beds in them if they are part of the wards.
During WW2 the army made use of The Orchard, up until D-Day. Shortly after their departure in 1944, almost half of the wooden hospital buildings were destroyed by enemy bombing and fire. Some accounts say the damage was caused by an early V1 flying bomb.
About a dozen, single-storey brick buildings survived. These were subsequently reused as part of a pig farm, serving the nearby Joyce Green Hospital. These overgrown buildings are now deteriorating, and the entire site is naturally rewilding.
Although the hospital’s wooden, barrack-like huts are completely gone, their concrete foundations support lush growths of mosses, lichens and small plants. Trees and brambles have colonised the spaces between, creating tall barriers.
The hospital paths, including the line of a tramway, remain. They are mossy underfoot and hemmed in by nature.
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We explored Wells Firework Factory remains in 2019, it was bramble heaven then as well.
