Stanley Royd Hospital Eastern Part of Main Range Comprising Early C19 Former Paupers' Lunatic Asylum

Stanley Royd Hospital: Eastern Part of Main Range

Pauper lunatic asylum, now mental hospital. Built in 1818 with wings added in 1828 and 1833, designed by Watson and Pritchett of York for the West Riding County Council. The building underwent alterations and additions in the later nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The asylum is constructed in white brick laid in Flemish bond with stone dressings and a Welsh slate roof. It is planned on an "H"-shaped layout with short wings projecting from a central cross-piece, which were later extended. Each wing terminates in a pavilion, and at the two crossing points stand octagon towers from which the wards and exercise yards could be observed. The building rises three storeys, with the octagon towers and pavilions reaching four storeys at the ends of the added wings.

The cross-piece is arranged in a 1:3:3:3:1 bay rhythm with a centre break and canted end bays that form one side of the octagons. The wings project at right angles, each comprising 1:5:1 bays with the end bays projecting slightly. Beyond the octagons at either end of the cross-piece were originally single-bay wings, each of which was later extended by ten bays.

The building features a stone plinth, first-floor band, and first and second-floor sill bands. An eaves cornice runs around the structure. Windows now have late twentieth-century centre-pivoting casements with flat brick arches and stone sills. Triple windows appear in the end bays of the wings and in the canted bays. The entrance front has a central three-bay break, formerly under a pediment, with giant angle pilasters rising to a cornice and a later attic storey above. Bridged windows light bays 3 and 9 and alternate sides of the octagon towers, which have string courses below their parapets. The roof is hipped over the end bays and incorporates various skylights, stacks, and ridge louvres.

A central cupola rises from the roof with an octagonal base, tall Roman Doric columns, and entablature below its second stage, which carries squat square columns, a dome, and a large weather vane. Twentieth-century alterations include new doors, a throughway inserted in bay 9, and ground-floor windows to the canted bays. A bay-window addition was made to the gable of the right-hand projecting wing. Further additions to the right return of this wing are not of special architectural interest.

The rear elevation features three central bays projecting forward under a corniced pediment, with a central six-panel door under a fanlight with glazing bars, flanked by full-height openings and similar openings above in segmental-arched recesses. The central first and second-floor windows here are blind. A blocked oculus occupies the tympanum. Nineteenth and twentieth-century additions to the ends and returns of the wings are not of special architectural interest. The extended wings on either side maintain the same style. The eastern wing has a partial basement and a large added ridge louvre. The western wing has been further extended and altered, though these further extensions are not of special architectural interest.

This asylum was only the sixth to be built in England and represented part of the contemporary development of the belief that lunatics should be treated humanely and that attempts should be made to cure them. Although built plainly and utilitarianly, the asylum embodied the most advanced thought on the design of such buildings and provides an important link between early attempts at classification in asylum planning. A significant feature was the octagon towers, which contained spiral stairs and fenestrated embrasures overlooking the wards, corridors, and exercise yards, allowing patients and staff to be kept under close but discreet observation. The plan was advanced in its provision of many single rooms for patients. The utilitarian approach is evident in the use of the cupola to house a cylinder from which exhaust air from the building escaped.