The present building was built as the Deal Naval Hospital in 1812 replacing an earlier hospital which was demolished after it had been badly damaged by lightening in a thunderstorm in 1809. Although a plan for the hospital by Ambrose Poynter of about 1817 exists in the RIBA drawings collection, it seems unlikely that he had designed the buildings. The building comprised a three storeyed L-plan block, with its main front facing the sea to the east. There were a series of wards which had opposing windows on all three floors and an operating theatre in a semi-circular projection to the rear of the main wing. In detached blocks to the west of the main hospital were the kitchen, a dispensary and a building which contained the mortuary and a lunatic cells. The hospital was eventually superceded by a new building in 1901 and the original building was renamed the East Barracks. Marines had been give accommodation in the hospital from about 1854.(1)

<1> RCHME, 1993, Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England: Compilation of Kent Hospitals Record Sheets (Unpublished document). SKE6841.

<2> RCHME edited by Harriet Richardson, 1998, English Hospitals 1660-1948, p82-84 (Monograph). SKE6867.