A provincial eye hospital, built in c.1852 to designs by John Whichcord to replace an earlier single storey building, a former Propietary School, on the same site which was occupied by the hospital in 1847. A two-storey Tudor-style building, of kentish ragstone, Whichcord's hosptial was later extended to include a chapel, an out-patients department and various specialist departments.(1)

Historical review of hospital doubts that Whichcord, although heavily involved with the inital development, actually designed the new buildings(2)

Description from record TQ 75 NE 769:
The following text is from the original listed building designation:
CHURCH STREET 1. 5278 (North East Side) Opthalmic Hospital TQ 7655 W 2/230 II
2. Dated 1846. Architect John Whichcord. 2 storeys, built of Kentish ragstone ashlar. It consists of a central portion of 2 storeys 3 bays with blank curved gables flanked by portions of 1 bay. These are in turn flanked by projecting portions of 1 bay with curved gable. The left side has a further addition of 4 bays with a gable on the side. Long and short quoins. Windows are mulliond and transomed casements. Central doorcase set in a round-headed arch with stone voussoirs and pilasters.
Listing NGR: TQ7618955929

An historic building recording that took place in 2006 detailed the construction of the complex along with the phasing of additions but did not reveal anything about it that was not known before. (4)

Historic England archive material: BF101220 KENT COUNTY OPHTHALMIC HOSPITAL, MAIDSTONE Miniature Format Film Number: 149/W,149/X

<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 RCHME, 1993, Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England: Compilation of Kent Hospitals Record Sheets (Unpublished document).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 (Monograph). SKe6867.

<2> Norton Thompson Associates, 1998, Kent County Ophthalmic Hospital, Maidstone: An Historical Review (Unpublished document). SKE7264.

<3> RCHME edited by Harriet Richardson, 1998, English Hospitals 1660-1948 (Monograph). SKE6867.

<4> CgMs Consulting, 2009, Historic Building Record: In respect of The Former Ophthalmic and Aural Hospital, Maidstone, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE16149.