Portwey Hospital

Portwey Hospital is a Grade II listed former workhouse
Establishment where the destitute in England and Wales received board and lodging in return for work. and hospital in Weymouth, Dorset.^[1] Following the establishment of the Weymouth Poor Law Union in January 1836, work began that year on the construction of the Weymouth Union workhouse, later known as the Weymouth Poor Law Institution. The building was designed using standard plans by Sampson Kempthorne of the Poor Law Commissioners, modified by Thomas Dobson and Thomas Hill Harvey of the Weymouth Board of Guardians.^[2]

The workhouse became Portwey Hospital after 1939,^[a]The Local Government Act 1929 gave local authorities the power to take over workhouse infirmaries as municipal hospitals, but outside of London few chose to do so.^[3] That same Act also abolished the workhouse system in England and Wales, but many workhouses were simply rebranded as Public Assistance Institutions and continued as before, although then under the control of local county councils rather than a board of guardians.^[4] and a maternity unit was added in 1948.^[2] Following its closure in 1987 the site was left derelict, until in 1992–1993 it was redeveloped for residential use, and is now known as Union Court;^[2] the development received an award from the Weymouth Civic Society in 1994.^[5] English Heritage, in its survey of the building before its redevelopment, described it as “somewhat austere” but with a “simple dignity”, enhanced by the economical use of Portland stone”.^[1]