Withington Hospital (Principal Administrative Block)

The principal administrative block of Withington Hospital was built in 1854 by Hayley, Son and Hall, originally for Chorlton Union. It is constructed of red brick with sandstone dressings and slate roofs. The building follows a cruciform plan, with long wings extending to the left and right, and a chapel projecting forward at the centre, incorporating a tower at the junction.

The chapel is a tall, single-storey, 7-bay range of brick, with a 3-bay entrance front of sandstone ashlar. The central gabled section features pilastered corners and a 3-bay arcade. This arcade has superimposed openings with Tuscan columns and an entablature to the ground floor, and Corinthian colonnettes above a central doorway with a fanlight and three round-headed windows featuring radiating glazing bars. The gable has a roundel and bracketed coping with a bellcote-style feature at the apex. Rusticated side bays incorporate round-headed arches containing large round-headed windows with radiating glazing bars, bracketed cornices, and parapets with shaped upstand features. The brick side walls have similar windows, with stone impost bands and elongated keystones. The tower, rising through the roof, is of ashlar in an Italianate style, with a modillioned cornice near the base, a short first stage with a dentilled cornice, and a tall belfry stage. The belfry stage has corner pilasters, round-headed arches containing louvred windows with two round-headed lights, a prominent bracketed cornice, and a pyramidal roof with a weathervane.

The three-storey east and west wings each have 18 windows. They feature stone plinths, rusticated quoins, a first-floor sill band, string courses above the top floor windows, bracketed eaves, and hipped roofs with cut-down ridge chimneys. The inner and outer bays of each wing project slightly and are quoined; the inner bays have one 3-light mullioned window on each floor, and the outer bays have stone architraves to all windows. Ground-floor windows have segmental heads, while first and second floor centre windows are tripartite, all with sashes and glazing bars. The intermediate ranges have segmental-headed windows and doors at ground floor, and 12- and 9-pane sashes at first and second floors, with flat-arched heads and keystones.

The rear wing is two storeys high with a basement, consisting of a 10-bay range. The four bays nearest the main block have unhorned 12-pane sashes, while the others have large round-headed windows with glazing bars (45 panes each). The interiors were not inspected.