Entrance Block And Casual Wards At Wharfedale General Hospital

The entrance block and casual wards at the former Wharfedale Union Workhouse were built between 1871 and 1873 by local architects C S and A J Nelson for the Wharfedale Poor Law Union. The building features coursed squared stone with ashlar dressings and Welsh slate roofs, characterized by coped gables and prominent coped side wall and gable stacks, all in the Gothic Revival style. It has a plinth and dentillated eaves, and is a single storey with nine unequal bays.

In the center, there is a pointed arched carriage entrance with a hood mould, topped by a coped gable and finial. To the left, there are two renewed windows with linked hood moulds, and to the right, an original plain sash window with a hood mould. To the left of the entrance, a higher block features a facing gable with three pointed arched windows with hood moulds, and above them, a round opening. Beyond this, a lower block has three renewed windows beneath a hipped roof. To the right, a minor gable contains two pointed arched windows with linked hood moulds, flanked by single plain sashes. Further right, a higher block with a facing gable has three reglazed pointed arched windows and a round opening above. Finally, there is a lower workshop with two small barred windows under a hipped roof. The rear elevation is largely obscured by later 20th-century single-storey flat-roofed additions, and at the south end, there are two smaller lean-to additions.

Inside, the building has plain offices, with the office north of the carriage entrance featuring a beaded four-panel door. The workshop to the north has a strutted king-post roof.