Gate House Block, Highgate House, Rear Block And Chimney Stack At Thornton View Hospital

The gate house block, Highgate House, rear block and chimney stack form part of Thornton View Hospital, originally built between 1852 and 1855 as the North Bierley Union workhouse. The design is contemporary with similar institutions in Bradford, sharing a similar massing and use of Italianate detailing.

The gate house range precedes the main workhouse buildings and runs north-south. It is constructed of sandstone “brick” with ashlar dressings, topped with a slate roof and bracketed corniced chimneys. The two-storey gate house features a three-bay centre with a break containing a large archway, and a cupola on the ridge. It incorporates a plinth, impost strings, a large bracket cornice above the ground floor, panelled piers flanking the archway, pilaster strips above the first-floor window, a frieze, and a moulded projecting eaves cornice. The archway has an archivolt arch with spaced vermiculated voussoirs. The first-floor windows are coupled with archivolt arches and columns dividing the lights, with panels above the ground-floor window heads. The wings have similar first-floor windows and shallow ground-floor breaks containing tripartite, columned, archivolt arched windows. A refurbished boardroom is situated above the archway, featuring a glazed dome in the cupola and oak fittings with ornate plaster mouldings.

Highgate House itself is a long, three-storey range with a broad gabled centre flanked by three-storey parapeted towers. The eight-bay wings have two-storey gabled end breaks. The towers are distinguished by eared architrave windows on each face. The centrepiece features a double pilastered doorway, an archivolt arched fanlight, and large consoles supporting a modillion bracket cornice. It has three eared architrave first-floor windows, but a full-width range of five archivolt arched lights with columns on the second floor. The wings are characterised by sill bands and impost strings linking archivolt arched windows. A two-storey, seven-bay wing extends to the south, with similar detailing to the main range.

The rear range is two storeys high and 18 bays long. The penultimate bays and the four central bays project forward with pediment gables. It includes sill bands and impost strings, with archivolt arched ground floor windows and plain ashlar lintels on the first floor. A deep bracketed moulded eaves cornice runs along the top. The doorways have large splayed, panelled reveals and segmental arches. The substantial sandstone “brick” chimney stack is of a tapering octagonal type, topped with a cornice crown.