Parkside Hospital (Original Blocks Only)

Parkside Hospital (Original Blocks)

County asylum, now psychiatric hospital. Built 1868–1871 to designs by Robert Griffiths of Stafford. Red brick with yellow brick and some stone dressings; Welsh slate roofs. The listing covers the principal hospital complex designed by Griffiths, which remains remarkably complete, but does not extend to later buildings.

The plan is regular and arranged around quadrangles, some completely enclosed, others partially enclosed, and some now occupied with later infill. A 2-storey administration building with a 5-stage clock tower stands forward of the main blocks and connects to them via lower ancillary ranges containing kitchens and stores. The plan's centre holds the surgeon's and matron's offices and rooms together with a dining hall flanked by two distinctive towers with leaded cupolas, forming a north-south axis. Crossing this on an east-west axis is a single-storey corridor range with 2-storey former 'excited blocks' at each extreme end. South of the corridor range run four similar ranges providing access to three detached 3-storey ward blocks (I to IV). Between corridors I and II, and between III and IV, aligned east-west, are two storeyed infirmaries, one for each sex, with the women's side to the west and the men's to the east. Standing forward of ward blocks II and III on the administration-dining hall axis is a detached former superintendent's house. Detached to the northwest is the former laundry (on the women's side) and to the northeast the former workshops (on the men's side). Between the administration block and laundries stands a further storeyed range, which, though apparently not part of the original plan, is stylistically consistent and must have been added shortly afterwards.

The overall style is a hybrid of Italianate and Rundbogenstil. Characteristic decorative features include round or segmentally-headed window arches with varied coloured voussoirs and keyblocks; stone plinths and lintel bands; decorative brick cornices; overhanging eaves, sometimes with console and sill brackets; and ridge stacks with decorative brick banding and moulded stone caps. Special decorative effects are reserved for the entrance and administration block, which features a projecting central tower porch, a principal arched doorway of two orders, one and two-light windows to the lower two floors, a tall second bay with recessed round-headed panels connected by an impost band, and a topmost stage with clocks to each face corbelled out and supporting a short spire. The ranges connecting the administration and central blocks to the outer elevations (single-storey) have internally an arcade of round-headed arches with coloured brick voussoirs, an impost band, and circular windows. Angle towers with external entrances mark the junctions between these ranges. The dining hall (burnt out and roofless at the time of inspection in June 1992) features flanking towers with round-headed entrance arches and roundels above; the upper stages have tall round-headed blind arches with leaded ogee caps. Large windows with basic tracery are set in arches of two orders with impost bands. A polygonal shallow apse extends to the south. The superintendent's house is of two storeys with windows having raised surrounds but otherwise detailed similarly to the other principal ranges. The kitchens include a tall chimney, which has lost its decorative cap. Some boundary walls demarcating enclosed recreation areas have been removed.

Griffiths was a significant architect who specialised in hospitals of this type.