Barnes Hospital

Barnes Hospital is a convalescent hospital built between 1871 and 1875 by Lawrence Booth of Manchester for the Manchester Royal Infirmary. It underwent alterations around 1893 by Pennington & Bridgen, and again around 1939–45 by Thomas Worthington & Son, both of Manchester. A recreation room and chapel were added in the mid and late 20th century, and further additions to the south were made around 1972 (not included in this listing).

The building is designed in the French Gothic Revival style, constructed in red brick with blue brick, ashlar and terracotta dressings. The Welsh slate roofs feature decorative ridge tiles and prominent coped stacks. Details include plinths, sill and impost bands, coped parapets and gables. The windows are mostly original with glazing bars and tilting top lights; those on the ground floor are flat-headed, while those above have Caernarvon arches. Pointed arched window openings have enriched surrounds.

The hospital follows a cruciform plan with the main axis running north-south. A central block contains offices, with patient accommodation in east and west side ranges, each terminating in a substantial cross wing. The north range comprises kitchens, boiler house and services, with the 20th-century recreation room, chapel and dining room located on the east side where the former winter garden once stood.

The south range of the main block is two storeys with attics, featuring a coped south gable topped with a figure of an angel. Paired windows appear on each floor. A mansard roof with cast iron crest contains gabled dormers. To the east stands a 20th-century stair enclosure of two storeys. To the west rises a four-stage clock tower with a two-stage lantern roof topped with an iron crown. The tower has angle buttresses to the lower stages, a pointed arched main doorway, mullioned windows at attic level, louvred openings above, and clock faces on each side.

The east and west ranges are two storeys, eight bays, with continuous ranges of crocketed gablets to the south. Central gabled porches dating from around 1900 are flanked by glazed verandahs covering four-circled round windows. On the north side, shallow projections each contain three tall windows divided by buttresses, lighting the axial corridor. Beyond these are projecting sanitary blocks, then three smaller windows.

The east and west cross wings contain the patients' entrances with original doors and glazed screens. Porte cocheres with round arches and hipped roofs behind parapets flank each wing. Canted projections occupy the angles on each side. The canted south ends of the wings have late 20th-century openings on each floor. The north ends feature splayed square corner towers with pyramidal roofs behind parapets.

The north range of the main block has a pointed arched arcade to the ground floor, formerly giving access to the winter garden. The mansard roof contains an elaborate pyramid-roofed wooden ventilator.

The northern service range has a two-storey section abutting the east-west range with an entrance on the east side. North of this is a lower range, single storey with attics over a basement. The east side features a projecting gabled bay with three lancets, then five windows, with two gabled dormers and two massive ridge stacks above. At the north end stands a single storey plant room with a flat roof. On the west side, a hipped dining room of the 20th century, two storeys with basement, adjoins the lower stages of a square sanitary block and a canted stair enclosure.

On the west side of the northern range are a single storey chapel with flat roof (late 20th century) and a single storey recreation room (mid 20th century), both attached to the main building by a short corridor.

Interior features include corridors, wards and other public rooms with late 20th-century suspended ceilings. The principal entrance retains its original door and glazed screens. Lobbies on each floor have triple arcades with square piers.

Several rooms on each floor of the south range feature cornices and 19th-century four-panel doors with moulded surrounds. The attics contain a chamfered pointed arched opening under the tower. An open well principal staircase of pine has turned newels and chamfered square balusters.

The side ranges have a spinal corridor on each floor, flanked to the south by wards and smaller rooms and to the north by sanitary blocks, treatment and service rooms. At the ends are dogleg staircases with square newels and original handrails, the balusters boxed-in. First floor corridors display exposed principal rafters on corbels and cast iron balustrades to the light wells. On the south side, a former day room features arch braced principal rafters.

The cross wings contain day rooms to the south and wards to the north; those on the first floor have arch braced principal rafters on corbels, glazed screens and doors.

The northern range has a lean-to corridor on the west side covering original openings. An open well staircase with panelled balustrade (mid 20th century) sits in the angle adjoining the dining room. The dining room features coved cross beams. The chapel has a coved ceiling and square recess at the east end.

Barnes Hospital is an early example of a convalescent hospital, noteworthy for its size and architectural distinctiveness.