The first Royal Naval Hospital which is now known as Old Naval Hospital
was built around 1730. This is a fine complex of Georgian buildings,
which still stand, and was last used as a hospital in World War 1. Closed
in 1919, it was converted internally into naval officer’s quarters.
The first military hospital was built in 1914
and was located in Bleak House, at Europa. It was found to be too
exposed to the weather for the treatment of the sick and had to be
vacated.
The first structure on the site of the present
Royal Naval Hospital was a wooden military Hospital built around 1860.
This wooden building was later lined with stone but finally demolished
to make way for the present hospital which was completed in 1903.
It was made up of three large blocks, each three storey high, with
capacity for about 300 beds.
Sixty years later, in 1963, it was taken
by the royal navy, and now, a third of a century later, it is in line
to be given up, its structure badly in need of attention.
