00:00If we don't do something now then it's going to be so much greater of a problem later and
00:05and as I say it would be an enormous loss to the history of Canterbury and of Kent.
00:10Nestled in the heart of Canterbury High Street sits a building with hundreds of years of history.
00:15Through this low gothic door lies former accommodation for poor pilgrims desperate
00:19to visit the shrine of Archbishop St Thomas Becket who was murdered in the cathedral in 1170.
00:24But now these ancient sleeping quarters have had to close for visitors.
00:28I received access to the oldest part of the hospital, the former dormitory, to talk about why.
00:33The building is rotating into the river, not to put it too finely.
00:40The reality is that this building has always been falling in the river and
00:44it's just a question of whether that fall is accelerating or not.
00:49We are working with Canterbury Archaeological Trust and with structural engineers to try
00:54and make sure that this is a building that will be here for future generations
01:01and not, you know, sadly something that falls into the river.
01:05I'm stood just outside the Eastbridge Hospital alongside the River Stour.
01:09You can see just behind me there, if you look towards the bay window and down,
01:12you can see that brickwork that's experiencing damage over the 800 years this place has been open.
01:17The charity says that renovations to make the building safe for visitors again
01:21could cost up to a quarter of a million pounds.
01:24We used to get probably in a season in this building, we used to get over just over 10,000 people,
01:30which obviously now we've been closed for over a year. So it's had a massive impact on the finances of
01:36the charity, which is why we're now finding we can't afford to pay for the renovations and all
01:42the work that needs doing down here in the Undercroft. That unknown little gem in the high street that
01:48people have heard of but maybe not been to for a long time. But I think historically there is so much
01:55here that it would be heartbreaking if this building were to close permanently and the charity finished.
02:01It just wouldn't be, it's not conceivable. Historic England has agreed to place a charity on their
02:07at-risk register, helping it towards securing grant funding for the future. But yet still,
02:12the charity say they need public support to help prevent the history here being washed away.
02:18Chloe Brewster for KMTV in Canterbury.
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