Listed Building record MDO19254 - Damers Hospital, Damers Road, Dorchester

Dorchester Union Workhouse was built in 1836 to designs by George Wilkinson. The cruciform plan building was built faced with coursed stone, with brick dressings and slate roofs. A chapel was added sometime between 1860 and 1910. The workhouse became a hospital in 1948. Only the eastern entrance block, the chapel and a cottage are still extant and have been used as a day nursery and offices by the West Dorset Community Health Council.

Damers Hospital built in 1836 as a Union Workhouse is a two-storeyed building in the shape of a Greek cross with ranges across the ends of the arms. The east front is of squared and coursed stone with brick dressed windows but the other walls are stuccoed. Subsequently a chapel was added on the south and extensive modern alterations made on the west side. <2>

Damers Hospital. East Front and chapel only listed Gde 2. The brick-built chapel with polygonal apse is of circa 1870. <4>

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 1 to 25 inch scale map, 1929 (Map). SDO18020.

(SY 68629030) Poor Law Institution (NAT)

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 1, 116 (Monograph). SDO148.

<3> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 1 to 25 inch scale map, 1971 (Map). SDO18020.

(SY 68629030) Damers Hospital (NAT)

<4> DOE (HRR), 1975, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest: District of West Dorset 1975, 17 (Scheduling record). SWX1433.

<5> Morrison, K, 1999, The Workhouse: a study of Poor Law Buildings in England, 65, 203 (Monograph). SDO17690.

<6> Historic England, Historic England Archive, BF100475 (Index). SDO14738.

West Dorset Community Health Council, formerly Damers Hospital, originally Dorchester Union Workhouse, Dorchester. The file contains the following miniature format film prints: 190/U/35 - 36, 190/V/00 - 4.

<7> National Record of the Historic Environment, 453535 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 22 2024 7:38PM