In 1844, following a world-wide typhus epidemic that affected many towns in Ireland, George Wilkinson, architect to the Poor Law Commissioners, was asked to produce designs for fever hospitals, to be added to workhouse sites. Although reluctant provision had been made for the sick poor in Wilkinson’s original workhouse designs, the workhouses were originally intended primarily for the able-bodied poor. The construction of the fever hospitals marked the beginning of the long transition made by many workhouses from buildings designed to discourage the poor from relying on the state, to modern hospital facilities caring for all. This talk will consider the architecture and layouts of the Fever Hospitals, some of the doctors associated with them, the types of diseases and treatments offered, the experience of patients and the survival and use of buildings to the present day.
