Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
85th birthday for city’s historic hospital
On the anniversary of its opening in 1937, we look back at the K&C’S eventful past - and the uncertain future that lies ahead...
Today marks 85 years of the Kent & Canterbury Hospital. It was officially opened on July 14, 1937, by the Duke of Kent and Princess Marina.
But its origins can be traced much further back to a conversation at the Barham races in 1790. A group of gentleman decided that establishing a county hospital near the city would be “a great public utility” - and one was built in the grounds of a monastery in Longport three years later.
By the mid-1920s, the local population had grown to 150,000 and the Longport site was deemed too small. Following a meeting of the board of governors in 1934, a decision was made to start the construction of the K&C we know today in Ethelbert Road.
The foundation stone was laid by the Duke of Kent on July 12, 1935, and the royal party returned almost exactly two years later to open the Art Deco-style hospital once described as “one of the seven wonders of Kent”. The land for the hospital had cost £2,500 (about £2 million today) and the construction and equipment £150,183 and 18 shillings (more than £50 million today).
In November 2001, plans to axe the K&C’S accident and emergency department sparked the largest public demonstration Canterbury has ever seen. An estimated 10,000-15,000 people marched defiantly from the Dane John Gardens, through the city centre to the Westgate Towers. The Gazette reported: “Children, the elderly, people in motorised wheelchairs, councillors, and MPS, all motivated by a sense of injustice and anger that their hospital is to be reduced to cottage hospital status, thronged the streets, banners aloft.”
Despite the huge numbers making their voices heard, the decision was made in 2002 to downgrade the A&E. An emergency care centre opened in its stead in 2005.
Today the debate is still raging on about the future of healthcare in east Kent. A long-awaited decision on whether to create a ‘super’ hospital in Canterbury - or move all specialist services to Ashford and downgrade the city site - looks no closer to being made. Kent NHS chiefs have submitted a bid for £460 million to fund either option. The cash would come from a £3.7 billion pot which the government has set aside to deliver 40 “new” hospitals across England by 2030. A decision was expected in the spring of 2022. However, the government’s final verdict has been delayed by the Covid pandemic.
The ‘super’ hospital proposal would see a more modern facility built on farmland next to the ageing K&C. Developers Quinn Estates would build the shell of the hospital for free as part of a wider housing development of 2,000 homes on surrounding land, with the NHS having to find the money to equip it. The five-storey building would host a major emergency unit for east Kent, with specialist services such as heart and stroke care centralised in Canterbury.