What became the hospital building was first a union workhouse, called Buckland Bottom in Union Road (now renamed Coombe Valley Road).

It opened in September 1836, and offered up to 500 people in poverty accommodation and employment opportunities.

An entrance block on the north side contained a boardroom and the master’s quarters.

There were narrow structures around the central courtyard which contained the inmates’ rooms.

A children’s block was later created to the west of the workhouse and is believed to be the first part of what is now the hospital.

The first medical building was added and joined by a new infirmary block in 1884.

By 1901, more extensions were built, including residential homes for nurses.

The main workhouse building was refurbished after the First World War, but no longer exists.

Throughout the Second World War the newer buildings were used as casualty wards, which it is believed had about 110 beds with access to underground bunkers.

It officially became a hospital in 1948 after the introduction of the National Health Service (NHS) in July that year.

From then it had medical and surgical wards until the late 1990s – and an accident and emergency service open during the day.

Midwifery services were stopped within the last decade, leaving an outpatients’ department, minor injuries unit and physiotherapy services.

The origianal workhouse cost about £1,000 to build on a plot of land that cashed in at £404 – a small sum compared to the £21m hospital being built next door.

Health bosses from the East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust gave it the go ahead in 2012.

NHS senior strategic development manager Sara Johnson told residents last year in a meeting that it would cost £5.6m of taxpayers’ money to restore Buckland’s old shell.

The hospital, which has not yet been named, will include state-of-the-art equipment and care for up to 60,000 patients.

The hospital’s opening was delayed by two months due to contractors unearthing a Second World War bunker in August 2013.

It is now set to open in April.