The Public Assistance Institution (the former workhouse) in Nunnery Fields, ‘a large, red brick-building in the Gothic style’ was adopted as a subsidiary (or ‘Class II’) Emergency Hospital early in 1939, and accommodation was made available for eighty further beds. Early in the war it was predicted that this institution, which normally catered for 150, might, under the Emergency Hospitals Scheme, be required to cater for 400. Improvements were suggested to the kitchen, scullery and cold-storage room, but the layout of the building made it ‘exceptionally difficult’ to adapt (late October 1939). There was also an air-raid siren fixed to the building. This may well have been installed ahead of the outbreak of the war. (A siren which had previously been purchased for fire alarm purposes at the institution was put to civil-defence uses elsewhere in Canterbury.) Late in 1940, equipment was supplied to heat the Public Assistance Institution siren, to prevent it freezing-up in the terrible winter weather of that year. The former Public Assistance Institution is currently undergoing residential redevelopment.
Owner : Private
Publicly accessible : Unknown
How accessed for survey :
Tourism Potential :
Condition : poor
Date of visit :

Canterbury City Council Emergency Committee, 01/01/39, Canterbury City Council Emergency Committee Minute Books 1 to 6 (Unpublished document). SKE14758.

Canterbury City Council Emergency Committee, 01/01/39, Canterbury City Council Emergency Committee Minute Books 1 to 6 (Unpublished document). Ske14758.

Williamson C., 01/01/46, Though the Streets Burn (Bibliographic reference). SKE14759.

Williamson C., 01/01/46, Though the Streets Burn (Bibliographic reference). Ske14759.