1897
On 20 April, Southwold Borough Council agrees to earmark this site for a memorial cottage hospital to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. A public appeal is launched for donations and annual subscriptions and the local architect, Thomas Edward Key, is retained to produce the designs. In the same year, a house on the adjacent Town Farm is taken over as a district nurses' home and interim, 4-bed hospital.
Note: Thomas Edward Key (1864-1911) was brought up in Leiston and studied at the Architectural Association in London where he won awards. His practice was mainly focused on the Suffolk coast and he maintained offices in both Southwold (No 1 Market Place) and Aldeburgh. As well as Southwold Hospital, Key designed the Station Hotel and the Randolph Hotel, Reydon, for Adnams. He also accepted some private commissions for large, detached houses in central London. He designed the Constitutional Club in Leiston, elementary schools in Saxmundham and Carlton Colville and oversaw church restorations at Peasenhall and Dennington. His obituary suggests that he also designed several Arts-&-Crafts-inspired houses in North Suffolk but these remain unattributed.
We are grateful to Alan Hatfield of Leiston for supplying details of Thomas Key's career.
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