Royal Sea Bathing Hospital, Canterbury Road, Margate, Kent
The former sea bathing hospital was founded in 1791 by Dr John Coakley Lettsom, a Quaker physician. It was for the scrofulous poor of London. It was a pioneer hospital in the use of open-air treatment for patients suffering from tubercular complaints. It was only open during the summer months as patients actually bathed in the sea from a bathing machine. When an indoor bath was built in 1858 the wards were open all year round.
