ONCE the site of a workhouse and infirmary, a multi-storey car park now stands on the site of one of Colchester's historic hospitals.

St Mary's Hospital used to care for hundreds of geriatric patients in the five years before it closed in 1993, and was knocked down to make way for development including St Mary's car park.

But its history dates back to the days of the Poor Law and workhouses.

The site was originally known as the Colchester Union Workhouse Infirmary when it was built in 1837 - a year after the Poor Law Act made such miserable places statutory.

It was a place where the destitute with no home, no job and no future could turn to when other hospitals would turn them away.

The workhouse and infirmary eventually became St Mary’s Hospital, which was a public assistance institution - accomodation for the elderly, the chronic sick and unmarried mothers.

The hospital closed in the early 90s after Colchester General Hospital was built in 1985. 

Click through the gallery above to see old pictures from the hospital's final decades.

Hospitals timeline: 

  • St Mary Magdalen Leper Hospital 1070
  •  Plague Pest Hospital 1665
  • Alexander Fordyce Hospital 1768-1772
  • Dr Loftus Wood Hospital 1797-1804
  • Military Hospital 1800-1818
  • Eye Infirmary 1816-1821
  • Essex and Colchester Hospital, 1820, became Essex County Hospital 1907
  • St Mary’s Hospital, formerly Colchester Union Workhouse Infirmary 1837- 1993
  • New Military Hospital 1859-1976
  • Essex Counties Asylum, Essex Hall 1859-1985
  • Lock Hospital, Port Lane, 1867-1886
  • Hospital Ship for Infectious Diseases 1877-1921
  • Myland Hospital for Infectious Diseases 1884-1989
  • Severalls Hospital 1913-1990
  • Maternity Hospital, Lexden Road 1932-1988
  • New hospital planned, but shelved 1944
  • Oaks Private Hospital 1950
  • St Helena Hospice 1985
  • Colchester General Hospital 1985