Building record MDO28177 - St Mary's Hospital, St Mary's Road, Poole

Former Poole Union Workhouse, now St Mary’s Hospital, at the junction of St Mary’s Road and Shaftesbury Road, with walls of brick and stone and a slate covered roof was built in 1838-9 by John Tulloch of Parkstone. May be incorporated within the present Harbour Hospital.

Former Poole Union Workhouse, now St. Mary’s Hospital, at the junction of St. Mary’s Road and Shaftesbury Road, with walls of brick and stone and a slate covered roof was built in 1838-9 by John Tulloch of Parkstone. The original building has a central octagonal block of three storeys with two storeyed wings to northwest, northeast and southeast and a detached entrance to the southwest facing Shaftesbury Road.<2>

Poole Union Workhouse was built between 1838 and 1839 to designs by John Tulloch (though the Workhouse book attributes the design to Mr Clarke). An infirmary, designed by H FJ Barnes, was added in 1903.Tenders for alterations to the wards for male patients with learning disabilities, at the time termed 'male imbecile wards' , were invited in 1903 and further tenders for new casual wards and the restoration of the clock tower, to designs by Edward Van Schepdael, were invited in 1909.The majority of the workhouse was demolished in 1979, with the exception of the infirmary and a few outbuildings which are now used by the Maternity Unit of the Poole Hospital. The infirmary is a two storey cement rendered building with slate roofs and the lodge is a white brick building, with bands of red brick a a slate roof. <1>

<1> Morrison, K, 1999, The Workhouse: a study of Poor Law Buildings in England, 203 (Monograph). SDO17690.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 2, 205-6 (Monograph). SDO149.

<3> Higginbotham, P, 2000, World Wide Web page andlt;http://www.workhouses.org.uk/ (Digital archive). SDO17705.

The Workhouse - Poole, Dorset < http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Poole/ > [accessed 18-AUG-2015]

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1407136 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 29 2024 5:05PM