Shrewsbury Hospital Almshouses, Chapel, Chaplains House, Infirmary And Wall

Shrewsbury Hospital Almshouses, Chapel, Chaplain's House, Infirmary and Wall

A complex of almshouses with adjoining chapel, chaplain's house, infirmary, and boundary wall with gates, built in 1825 and restored in 1989. Designed by Woodhead & Hurst in the Tudor Gothic Revival style. The buildings are constructed in ashlar with slate roofs and corbelled, billeted paired stone ridge stacks.

Exterior

The complex is arranged in a U-plan, with a single-storey central chapel flanked by dwelling ranges, and the chaplain's house and infirmary occupying the ends of the wings. The base features double chamfered plinths, with chamfered eaves and coped gables throughout.

The chapel has buttresses with finials. Its chancel contains a transomed 4-light Perpendicular east window, and on the south side a single lancet with a round-headed bell opening above. A Tudor arched doorway is located on the north side. The nave includes a clerestory with five 2-light pointed arch windows on each side. The west end window was removed for restoration at the time of survey. The aisles, which are windowless with set-back ends, are reached via a Tudor arched door on the south side with a lamp above. The full-width west porch has a Tudor arched doorway with label mould, flanked by single lancets at each end.

Flanking the chapel, the dwelling ranges feature five coped gabled porches with Tudor arched doorways and label moulds, each covering two cusked half-glazed doors. Between the porches are 2-light pointed arch windows with chamfered mullions and label moulds. At each end are single similar 2-light windows. At the rear, each pair of dwellings has a large gable with a 2-light window, with plain doorways in the return angles. The left wing contains 3 porches and 2-light windows in a 2:2:2:1 arrangement. The right wing has 2 porches and windows arranged 1:2:1.

The chaplain's house to the right is 2 storeys in a T-plan, with a quadruple octagonal ridge stack, two similar square gable stacks, and a single ridge stack. The buttressed street front features a central blind gabled dormer with a coat of arms, and two 2-light pointed arch windows on each floor with label moulds. The left gable has a 2-light pointed arch window on each floor. The left return has a 2-storey gabled porch with a 4-light window and a Tudor arched door below, flanked by 2-light windows, the right one under a through-eaves dormer. Below are a 2-light window to the left and two similar windows to the right.

The infirmary block to the left, now houses, is 2 storeys with a 5-window range. The street front features a central blank lancet on each floor flanked by 2-light pointed arch windows on either side. Between two pinnacled buttresses is a single square-headed window on each floor. The right gable has a 2-light pointed arch window on each floor. At the rear is a large Tudor arched opening to an access passage.

Interior

The chapel interior is rendered. The chancel has a moulded Tudor arch with clustered shafts and a shallow rib vault, with single Tudor arched doorways on each side. The nave contains five bays of Tudor arched arcades with clustered filleted shafts and a flat ceiling with moulded span beams. Traceried glazed wooden screens separate the nave from the aisles and close the west end. The west end features a 4-light Perpendicular window and a Tudor arched doorway below.

Fittings include 19th-century panelled benches and stalls, a square wooden skeleton pulpit, and a turned lectern.

Boundary Wall

The attached boundary wall features a half-round coped plinth with the railing removed. It includes three pairs of square gate piers with traceried panels. At the centre is a double spearhead gate with a coat of arms, and at either end is a single gate.