Priory Street Hospital
What: General Infirmary
Where: Carmarthen, Carmarthenshire
Built: 1858, extended 1936
Architect: William Wesley Jenkins
Abandoned: 1996
Listed: Grade II
Visited: 2009, 2011
Last Known Condition: Derelict
Page Updated: February 2014
'At a numerous and highly influential Meeting of the Nobility,
Clergy and Inhabitants' of Carmarthenshire held at the Guildhall,
Carmarthen on Saturday 4 October 1846, Sir John Mansel, Bart,
High Sheriff in the chair, unanimous expression was given to the view
that 'the want of a Public Infirmary to supply the sick poor with
gratuitous Medical advice on Surgical treatment has been long and
grievously felt in this Town and County'.
To address this want, one year later the old Carmarthen Gaol within the Castle walls was converted into a 'temporary' infirmary. In actuality, the infirmary occupied the site for over a decade, and despite the best efforts of staff and subscribers, by 1850 the hospital was dirty and overcrowded: In October 1853 the Revd Dr. Lloyd complained
that 'the smell in the male ward was so bad that he could not remain
a minute in the room' and the problem of overcrowding was no less serious.
With good reason it was felt that the building of a new
infirmary could not be delayed much longer. On 21st September
1853 a sub-committee met to discuss potential sites. Little was agreed, however, until the institution's Annual
General Meeting in April 1855, at which the site of the old Boys' Grammar School on Priory Street was chosen. The sum of £500 was paid for the site and a new Infirmary designed by local architect William Wesley Jenkins opened in July 1858 at a cost of approximately £7,000.
The much-improved Carmarthenshire Infirmary continued to be supported by
voluntary subscription from the gentry and businessfolk of the town until the Nationalisation of Health Services in 1948. Despite the opening of a new Hospital on the site of the American Military Hospital at Glangwili in 1959, the Priory Street Hospital, as it became known, operated until 1996.
Years later, the building stands empty. Although a £500 fine was served upon the owner for failure to remove scaffolding and repair broken windows in 2006, no such action has been taken: The building is in a parlous state, plagued by damp and woodrot.
Permission was granted in 2000 to convert the Grade II listed hospital into flats and work was started, including the demolition of two later wings but the plans evidently fell through and the site is littered with building materials. It was placed on the market in 2011 as a 'conversion opportunity' at a cost of £795,000 and in 2013 plans were approved to convert the building into nineteen flats.
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