Storey Home

SD 46 SE LANCASTER ASHTON ROAD

4685-1/1/10001 Storey Home

• II

Nurses Home. 1897, with late C20 minor alterations. By Paley and Austin, architects, of Lancaster, for Sir Thomas Storey, patron, as part of the Lancaster Asylum complex, now the Royal Albert Hospital. Coursed squared sandstone with ashlar dressings, with hipped roofs covered in Westmorland slate. FRONT (east) ELEVATION: 7 bay front, the centre 3 bays of 3 storeys, with 2 storey advanced wings. Off-centre entrance within advanced canted porch, with semi-circular headed doorway with moulded surround, and panelled double doors each with glazing within decorative grilles to the curved upper part. Above the doorway, a gablet bearing a coat of arms and motto. To the left, a tall 3-light window, with ogee-headed light, above which is set a plaque commemorating the erection of the building by Sir Thomas Storey in the 50th year of the reign of Queen Victoria (1897). Above this, a canted bay window, the roof of which forms part of a narrow mansard. A small gabled dormer is set above the bay window, flanked by 2 large mullion and transom windows beneath hall - hipped dormer roofs. Penetrating the right-hand slope of each dormer are ashlar chimney stacks. At either end of the main range are lower advanced wings, each with 2 ground floor sash windows set within ashlar surrounds. Above, a centrally-placed coupled sash window with an overlight set within a half-hipped end dormer. INTERIOR: not inspected, but known at time of listing to contain original door and window joinery, decorative moulded plaster cornices and plasterwork to entrance archways, and, in the attics to the wings, exposed roof tie beams with curved braces and decorative infil to the spandrels. HISTORY: The building provided by Sir Thomas Storey was described in a contemporary report as " a house for 40 of the more intelligent girls who have completed their period of training in the institution, or are entering on their last year of residence prior to their discharge". The report suggested that " the services of these girls shall be utilised, not only doing the work of the house itself, but also in assisting in the nursing and domestic service of the Asylum".

Listing NGR: SD4745360018