Redhills Workhouse and Hospital

This former workhouse and then hospital still stands, almost proudly, on the corner of Exwick and Okehampton Roads.

Before 1899, St Thomas was responsible for its own administration. Therefore, the St Thomas Poor Law Union was formed on 21st April 1836 to administer poor relief over a wide area of 49 parishes including Alphington, Exmouth, Heavitree and Woodbury, to be overseen by a Board of 61 Guardians.

A new workhouse was built at Redhills in 1837, on the border of St Thomas and Exwick to accommodate 450 inmates. The architect was Sampson Kempthorne, who designed many other workhouses in Devon, and it covered 3½ acres and cost £11,000 to construct. It had three wings, emerging like spokes from a hub, with each wing meeting at right angles a long block arranged around the hexagonal periphery. Each area between two three storey accommodation wings was divided into two exercise yards. Sometime later, a hospital block was built north of the main complex, on the Exwick Road known as the Victoria Block, and a second Albert Block dating from 1897.

In 1930, the Poor Law Union maintaining the Redhills Workhouse was abolished to be replaced by the Public Assistance Institution and then, in 1948, the workhouse was absorbed into the new NHS. The hospital block was used as a maternity facility during and after the Second War, and in the 1950's, the old workhouse became a geriatric hospital, and later a drop in centre for the elderly. In 1996 it was used as a day centre for mental patients for the Exeter Community Health Trust. The buildings have since been redeveloped for housing.