Ardwick and Ancoats Hospital

This list entry was subject to a Minor Enhancement on 23 November 2022 to amend description, architect and date of construction and add a reference to selected sources and to reformat the text to current standards.

SJ8598 698-1/17/455

MANCHESTER Ancoats MILL STREET (south east side) Ardwick and Ancoats Hospital

(Formerly Listed as: MILL STREET, Ancoats (South East side) Ancoats Hospital)

03/10/74

II Dispensary and hospital, now disused. 1872 to 1873, by Daniel Lewis. Red brick with polychrome bands, steeply-pitched hipped slate roofs. Irregular plan. Gothic style. Three storeys and basements, 1:1:3:1:1 bays, symmetrical, the three-bay centre and the ends projecting. The centre bay, treated as a four-stage tower, breaks forwards slightly, has a two-centred arched doorway with shafts, the arch inscribed "ANCOATS HOSPITAL" and an arched extrados band inscribed "ARDWICK AND ANCOATS DISPENSARY", two-light windows to the first and second floors, weathered coping with stone turrets, and an elaborate turret with an oculus and tall oversailing parapet with corner tourelles (and formerly a saddle-back roof). All the windows have narrow arched lights with polychrome heads and impost bands, all those of the three-bay centre with shafts: the ground floor has mostly three-light windows and the first floor has mostly two-light windows, but the recessed bays which have four- and three-light windows to these floors; the second floor has two-light windows rising into gabled half-dormers. Later additions to rear. Interior not inspected.

Historical note: the building was paid for by a gift of £5,000 by Hannah Bra(c)kenbury; a later bequest of hers, and local fundraising. In 1875 it became a provident dispensary, with means testing, and joining fees and subscriptions for members. In 1914 it was the site of the world’s first dedicated fracture clinic. The dispensary is mentioned in Elizabeth Gaskell’s ‘Mary Barton’ (1848). It was the subject of LS Lowry’s ‘The Outpatients’ Hall’ (1952), which depicted the accident and emergency department that operated here until 1979. The hospital closed in 1989.

Listing NGR: SJ8545198426