New pictures show how the former site of Dover’s original Buckland Hospital is being transformed into housing.

The first of the homes in Coombe Valley Road are now built.

Several more, including behind the car park of the replacement hospital, are still under construction.

Dover District Council granted detailed planning permission for 81 two- to three-bed homes in June 2021 and construction has progressed steadily since.

The estate is now called Buckland Vale and is advertised by estate agents Wards of Kent.

The already-built houses have a sign describing them as “a stunning collection” of houses with private rear gardens and parking.

It marks the end of an era for the old Buckland Hospital, which saw the births and treatments of generations of Dovorians.

It was at first the Dover Union Workhouse Infirmary, opening on September 29, 1836.

The centre offered up to 500 people in poverty accommodation and work.

It became a new infirmary in 1884 and a nurses’ home was added in 1902.

Infirmary blocks, a children’s block and a chapel were added over the 19th and 20th centuries.

The institution was known as the County Hospital from 1943 to 1948 and was named Buckland Hospital when it became part of the newly-formed National Health Service in 1948.

The road the site is on was called Union Road until it was changed to Coombe Valley Road in 1964.

The hospital was replaced by a new facility with the same name in 2015, located 60 to 70 metres down the road.

The original was finally knocked down during 2017.

KentOnline has contacted Wards for more details of the new development.