Kingsway Health Centre And Associated Walls, Gates And Railings

This former health centre was built in 1938-9 to designs by Austin T. Parrott under the supervision of Widnes Borough Engineer's Department. It is constructed with a steel frame clad in mellow red brick laid in Flemish garden wall bond, with metal-framed windows and a flat roof. The building is mainly two storeys plus basement and designed in the Moderne style with Art Deco elements.

Plan and Structure

The building has a rectangular footprint with short rear projections. A two-storey U-shaped block forms the front and side wings, with a one-and-a-half-storey waiting room to the centre rear and single-storey L-shaped rear projections.

Exterior

A parapet with rendered concrete copings conceals the flat roof. Large multi-light windows in consistent style appear on all elevations, with bands of vertically laid headers in darker brick below windows and vertically laid stretchers above windows and beneath the parapet (in darker brick above sun-trap windows).

The front elevation has a symmetrical design. A glazed entrance tower sits at the centre with an extremely large 14-light window with geometric patterned glazing bars; the lights continue around to each side at the top of the tower. The top lights and roof rise above the parapet, which curves down into the tower. The wide main entrance at ground floor has a moulded surround (doors replaced) with relief lettering above reading 'HEALTH CENTRE' and a large cantilevered moulded concrete hood above. Long 14-light horizontal window bands with vertical and horizontal glazing bars appear on both floors at each side of the entrance tower. Projecting wings at each end of the elevation have curved corners incorporating sun-trap windows (continuing around to the side elevations) and shallow projecting front panels rising above the parapet. These panels contain three vertical channels at ground floor and a tall vertical window at first floor set within a wide channel with a small projecting brick and concrete feature with cantilevered metal balcony above.

The left (north) side elevation has a large window to the centre of the ground floor with flanking geometrically shaped concrete features attached vertically to the wall with light fittings to the underside. Metal double doors accessed by steps sit to each side of the central window with flanking side lights. The wall projects below in the style of a plinth with concrete copings; two slender piers rising from the plinth flank each doorway, with those to the outside being taller. The central window and doorways are set beneath a continuous cantilevered concrete hood with curved edges to the inside above the window. Two large windows appear in the outer bays, with sun-trap windows to each end of the elevation. Eleven windows at first floor are in the same style as ground floor but slightly smaller, with sun-trap windows to each curved end.

The south side elevation has five windows to the centre of each floor (those at ground floor are larger) flanked by full-height plain pilaster strips rising above the parapet. Two windows appear in the outside bays with sun-trap windows to each curved end of the elevation.

The rear elevation has an external stack to the right wing serving the basement boiler. The entrance tower rises above roof level with a door to the rear leading onto a roof terrace (hidden from view by the parapet). The waiting room has three large multi-light windows with raised concrete banding detail above, and two doorways with horizontal panelling set to each side of the windows with horizontal windows above. Single-storey projections step in from the edge of the side wings; flat roofs continue across to form hoods above doorways. Windows appear in the side returns, with a door to the left return of the right projection flanked by brick piers in the same style as those to the left (north) side elevation. Rainwater hoppers with horizontal mouldings appear on all elevations.

Interior

The original layout remains intact with the waiting room to the centre rear of the building, a glazed entrance/stair hall and reception to the centre front occupying the entrance tower, and clinic rooms and offices to the front and side wings and rear projections. Original features include doors, tiled walls to toilets and storage areas with patterned Art Deco coloured borders, large sinks with angled tiled units below, partly glazed cubicles with sliding doors, and concealed services including radiators set within dedicated wall alcoves.

The entrance hall contains a cantilevered concrete open-well stair with metal 'ship's rail' type balustrade and wreathed newel post to the ground floor set upon a circular concrete pier. The lower flight between ground floor and first half-landing is not cantilevered; the bottom steps with chequerboard edge decoration fan outwards and curve into the entrance hall. Green Vitrolite tiled walls appear in the entrance hall and as dados to the stair and first floor landing.

The large one-and-a-half-storey waiting room is lit by large multipaned skylights with doors with shaped architraves leading off into consulting and treatment rooms. Later removable partitioning has been added to the rear of the waiting room. A later inserted glazed screen and fire doors appear on the first floor landing behind the stair balustrade. The first floor corridor alongside the rear external wall of the front wing is lit by horizontal windows (hidden from view to the rear elevation). Deep coved ceilings appear in first floor rooms and skylights in some rooms under later suspended ceilings. Front rooms to the first floor of side wings have original built-in shelving. A plain plank and batten door at the top of the main stair leads to the roof terrace.

Subsidiary Features

A tall brick wall (laid in Flemish garden wall bond) surmounted by concrete copings and decorative Art Deco iron balustrade with intermittent brick piers encloses the site. The west entrance has curved flanking walls and double gates with ironwork in the same style as the railings. A further gate in similar style appears at the east end of the south wall (providing vehicular access into the rear car park). A pedestrian gate with more ornamental treatment is positioned towards the west end of the south wall. Low brick walls with rendered concrete copings in front of the building are surmounted by metal balustrades in the same style as the main boundary wall, with short brick piers surmounted by tall globe electric lights incorporated into the front wall flanking two steps in line with the west entrance.

History

During the 1930s there was concern within Widnes that the town's scattered healthcare facilities were inadequate. In 1938 it was decided to build a central health clinic providing a full programme of facilities including dentistry, podiatry, and numerous consulting rooms. The Kingsway Health Centre was constructed under the supervision of the Widnes Borough Engineer's Department in 1938-9 to the designs of Austin T. Parrott, and opened in August 1939 shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. The main contractors for the building were Atlas Building & Construction Company of Warrington and the total construction cost was £18,000. The health centre remained in use until 2006 when a new building was constructed nearby.