So to kick off the day of exploring in Folkestone with my boyfriend we had to take a stop off here. After getting tipped off about the Hospital being open I was very confident we was going to get in. The access was somewhat easy but sketchy. Looking back on posts of this place from 2011 compare to now, wow the place is almost completely different.... going from a somewhat undecayed building with hospital stuff in there, it’s now a very empty rotted hospital. Sadly it has got a lot of vandalism - graffiti. They’ve made a right mess in most of the building that we got to explore. The structure inside the hospital is really nice. Sadly for us we could only explore half of the building as the staircase was way too dodgy as you can see from my photo. However, after exploring what we could in the main building I took us into an outbuilding which took us in to another part of the main building which we couldn’t get to due to the dodgy staircase. This was where we found the really cool spaceman wall! What was annoying was the door that would’ve led us to the ground floor of the rest of the main building was blocked by a massive metal security door. The morgue was sealed - I was gutted about that. We got into a Hall, which was quite clearly lived in by homeless people. The chapel was also sadly sealed. None the less a really interesting explore, this place has been on my list for a very long time! It’s finally ticked off!
History -
The hospital originally opened in 1846 on nearby Rendezvous St. in Folkestone town centre and was known as the Folkestone Dispensary. In 1863 it relocated to a site on Dover Rd and was expanded and re-named the Folkestone Dispensary and Infirmary. In 1890, it moved to this new general hospital building opened overlooking Radnor Park and was again re-named, this time to the Victoria Hospital. It served the town and borough of Folkestone and 1910 was when it became the Royal Victoria Hospital. By the 1970s, all services were being scaled down and in 1979 when the new William Harvey Hospital opened in neighbouring town Ashford most were then transferred there. The Royal Victoria then became a centre for geriatric, stroke rehabilitation, eye surgery and GP patients. In 2005/6 the last remaining wards closed and the old Victorian building has been standing there since.
History -
The hospital originally opened in 1846 on nearby Rendezvous St. in Folkestone town centre and was known as the Folkestone Dispensary. In 1863 it relocated to a site on Dover Rd and was expanded and re-named the Folkestone Dispensary and Infirmary. In 1890, it moved to this new general hospital building opened overlooking Radnor Park and was again re-named, this time to the Victoria Hospital. It served the town and borough of Folkestone and 1910 was when it became the Royal Victoria Hospital. By the 1970s, all services were being scaled down and in 1979 when the new William Harvey Hospital opened in neighbouring town Ashford most were then transferred there. The Royal Victoria then became a centre for geriatric, stroke rehabilitation, eye surgery and GP patients. In 2005/6 the last remaining wards closed and the old Victorian building has been standing there since.
