Corson's Outpatients' Department

Corson's Outpatients' Department

Hospital outpatients' department and south high-level enclosed corridor, built 1889-1892 by George Corson. Constructed in red brick with sandstone dressings and a slate roof.

The outpatients' department is aligned east-west on the east side of the central court of the original infirmary and linked to its flanking covered corridors. The building contains a very large, rectangular waiting room hall with side arcaded aisles (since subdivided into two floors with the arcades infilled), flanked by consulting rooms on three sides (those on the north and east sides now demolished). A high-level enclosed corridor joins the south-west corner of the waiting room hall to the north-east corner of the east pavilion on the south side of the original infirmary and to the corridor flanking the south side of the central court.

The exterior of the rear (north side) of the outpatients' department features Gothic detailing in brick and stone. The large rectangular waiting room hall has a stepped brick eaves cornice and a row of round-headed clerestory windows with a modern external metal walkway. The pitched slate roof has an eaves group of brick stacks and three polygonal roof ventilators to the ridge. In front of the waiting room hall is a three-storey range with a double-pitched roof and a projecting polygonal bay to the centre with a polygonal tower at the south-east corner. The polygonal bay has a steep roof with finials to the short ridge, flanked by two brick ridge stacks. The tower has a steep polygonal roof with a finial. The two outer bays of the south elevation are slightly recessed. Set back on the left-hand side is a three-storey, two-bay block with a hipped roof. There are a variety of arched windows with alternating stone and brick voussoirs, some with stone plate tracery.

The high-level enclosed corridor joining the waiting room hall to the east pavilion is built of brick with a slate roof, hipped at the west end, with decorative red tiles to the ridge. The south side of the corridor has a decorative brick eaves cornice. Beneath is an arcade of round-headed arches with alternating stone and brick voussoirs and stone capitals and columns rising from decorative stone corbels with stone moulded corbel string and low brick infill walls with stone coping and iron railings. Timber windows are set back behind the arcade. At a lower level is a moulded corbel string continuing the string on the original east pavilion. Above and below the string are two-light and three-light windows with transom and square-headed windows with stone frames, sills and lintels. The north side of the corridor is only partly visible but has similar two-light and three-light windows with transom.

The interior of the large waiting room has a barrel-arched roof with curved steel trusses rising from stone corbels. The original side arcades have round-headed arches and granite columns; the arcades are now infilled.

The following elements are excluded from the listing: the lower enclosed corridor running from the north-west corner of the waiting room hall to the corridor flanking the north side of the central court; the flat-roofed brick building with rooftop extensions built across the lower part of the west gable of the waiting room hall; the 1910 link block and lift shaft between the waiting room hall and Corson's pavilion wing to the south; the extension of around 1937 built against the north side of the waiting room hall; the King Edward VII Memorial Wing built against the east side of the waiting room hall; and the mid-twentieth-century inserted floor in the waiting room hall.