Joyce Green Hospital Archives - Remote London https://www.remotelondon.com/tag/joyce-green-hospital/ Wild spaces & solitude on the edges of London Tue, 07 Feb 2023 20:17:47 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.1 https://www.remotelondon.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Greater-London-outline-favicon.png Joyce Green Hospital Archives - Remote London https://www.remotelondon.com/tag/joyce-green-hospital/ 32 32 179982959 The Long Reach hospital ships – ghosts of the Dartford Marshes https://www.remotelondon.com/long-reach-hospital-ships-dartford-marshes/ Thu, 28 Nov 2019 18:58:48 +0000 http://www.remotelondon.com/?p=506 The Long Reach hospital ships once lay just off the Dartford Marshes. Securely moored in the River Thames, the ships formed…

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The Long Reach hospital ships once lay just off the Dartford Marshes. Securely moored in the River Thames, the ships formed a floating hospital where highly contagious smallpox patients could be treated in this remote setting.

In the late 19th century smallpox epidemics were ravaging London. With high fatality and transmission rates, it was necessary to treat patients away from the urban centre, somewhere remote. Somewhere like the Dartford Marshes.

Between 1883 and 1904 three large hospital ships were moored in an offshore line, along the Thames foreshore. Together they held 300 smallpox patients, along with the staff needed to care for the victims as best they could.

The Atlas, Endymion and Castailia off Dartford Marshes
The Atlas, Endymion and Castailia off Dartford Marshes. Image source: Welcome Collection

The move inland

With increasing demand for beds, rising maintenance costs and the constant risk of collision from other shipping, a decision was made to build a new isolation hospital inland of the hospital ships, served by a tramway.

Trams were drawn by horses and the route still partially exists, as part of Route 125 of the National Cycle Network. On Google Maps it is currently labelled at Marsh Street North.

The 'Castalia' hospital ship
The 'Castalia' hospital ship. Image source: National Maritime Museum

The hospital ships were sold for scrap when Joyce Green Hospital replaced them, and no trace of them, or the pier that once served them, exists today.

View of the River Thames showing where the Long Reach hospital ships were once moored
View of the River Thames showing where the Long Reach hospital ships were once moored.

More information

https://dartfordhospitalhistories.org.uk/hospital-ships/hospital-ships-introduction/

Insecure but useful links

workhouses (dot) org.uk/MAB-HospitalShips/

ezitis.myzen (dot) co.uk/briefhistoryhospships.html

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]]> 506 The lost Long Reach & Joyce Green Hospitals on the Dartford Marshes https://www.remotelondon.com/joyce-green-hospital-long-reach-dartford-marshes/ Thu, 28 Nov 2019 18:48:02 +0000 http://www.remotelondon.com/?p=502 Joyce Green Hospital and Long Reach were isolation hospitals, built on the Dartford Marshes in the early 20th century. The remote nature…

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Joyce Green Hospital and Long Reach were isolation hospitals, built on the Dartford Marshes in the early 20th century.

The remote nature of the Dartford Marshes made them ideal for isolation hospitals. Contagious smallpox patients were already being treated in the Long Reach hospital ships, moored just off the marshes in the Thames. However, numbers of patients were rising, and the ships were in poor condition.

As numbers of smallpox patients threatening to overwhelm the three hospital ships, construction began on Joyce Green Hospital. The hospital opened on former agricultural land in December 1903.

The hospital was of impressive size and layout, an eye-catching outline on maps of the time. Joyce Green Hospital was first used as an isolation hospital, and then as a training hospital. The hospital was demolished in 2000 and almost all trace is now lost beneath modern housing. The hospital’s cemetery still exists, just south of the A206 dual carriageway.

The hospital was served by a tramway which connected it to the Thames. This tramway still partially exists, as part of Route 125 of the National Cycle Network. On Google Maps the tramway is currently labelled as Marsh Street North.

Long Reach

As construction began at Joyce Green Hospital, temporary buildings were erected just inland of the hospital boats. These temporary hospital units were known as Long Reach. The location is now overgrown with tangled woodland, and it is unlikely that much survives following demolition in 1974. The route of the tramway clearly divides here, with one line breaking away to the northwest, parallel to the Thames and towards Long Reach. However, the path is quickly engulfed in brambles and is currently unpassable.

Another, larger complex of temporary buildings to the north west of the main hospital was known as The Orchard. The remains of the Orchard are accessible via unofficial paths leading from Joyce Green Lane, and from the tramway shortly before it joins Binnie Road.

Long Reach hospital seen from the air, during flooding in 1953. For more images see © https://dartfordhospitalhistories.org.uk/
Long Reach hospital seen from the air, during flooding in 1953. For more images see https://dartfordhospitalhistories.org.uk/

Joyce Green Hospital – useful links

https://dartfordhospitalhistories.org.uk/joyce-green/joyce-green-introduction/

workhouses.org.uk/MAB-JoyceGreen/

Long Reach – useful links

https://dartfordhospitalhistories.org.uk/long-reach/long-reach-introduction/

workhouses.org.uk/MAB-LongReach/

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]]> 502 The Orchard Hospital, exploring a lost ghost of the Dartford Marshes https://www.remotelondon.com/orchard-hospital-dartford-marshes/ Thu, 28 Nov 2019 18:34:42 +0000 http://www.remotelondon.com/?p=498 The Orchard Hospital was an isolation unit built on Dartford Marshes in the early 20th century. Bombing, fire and demolition have destroyed…

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The Orchard Hospital was an isolation unit built on Dartford Marshes in the early 20th century. Bombing, fire and demolition have destroyed much of the hospital, but traces remain.

On Joyce Green Lane, just past Joyce Green Farm, several dirt bike trails lead from the road into the dense vegetation on the right. These lead to and around the hospital, built in 1902 on a former fruit orchard.

Nature flourishes amid the derelict remains of the Orchard Hospital on Dartford Marshes
Nature flourishes amid the remains of the Orchard Hospital

The Orchard was later used as a WW1 military hospital and in 1918, the complex housed more than one thousand Russian refugees, who had been in contact with smallpox.

The hospital was initially built to manage patients until the nearby Joyce Green Hospital was completed. Joyce Green has now been demolished and lost under recent housing development.

A derelict brick building in the overgrown remains of the Orchard on Dartford Marshes
A derelict brick building in the overgrown remains of the Orchard Hospital

Destruction of the Orchard Hospital

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. 

A burnt out car amid the overgrown remains of the Orchard Hospital on Dartford Marshes

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.

Close-up of moss growing on a wide stretch of flat concrete

The Orchard Hospital – useful links

https://dartfordhospitalhistories.org.uk/orchard/orchard-introduction-2/

workhouses.org.uk/MAB-Orchard/

1915 map of Dartford Marshes showing Joyce Green Hospital and the Orchard. For full map see: https://maps.nls.uk/view/102342320
1915 map of Dartford Marshes showing the Orchard (top left) and Joyce Green Hospital. For full map see: https://maps.nls.uk/view/102342320
Google Satellite view of the overgrown Orchard Hospital
Google satellite view of the overgrown Orchard Hospital. Joyce Green Hospital is now a modern housing estate.

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