Former Carlton Hayes Hospital Chapel

Former Carlton Hayes Hospital Chapel

This chapel was built between 1904 and 1907 by architect S P Pick for Carlton Hayes hospital. It is constructed of red brick with a Swithland slate roof and a timber bellcote.

The chapel is rectangular in plan, aligned north-west to south-east, and comprises eleven bays: eight forming the nave and three the chancel. Porches and entrances are located at the north-west end, sitting perpendicular to the main body of the chapel, with additional porches and entrances positioned between the nave and chancel, also perpendicular to the main building.

The exterior is built of red brick in English bond with a Swithland slate roof. The principal entrances at the northern end comprise tapering open porches leading to wide segmental-arched door openings fitted with pairs of heavy plank and batten doors with elongated strap hinges. Along the side elevations, sweeping, curved and stepped buttresses with tumbled brick detailing below blue-brick coping separate the bays. Each bay (except those with entrances) is marked by a pair of tall, narrow, segmental-arched leaded windows at clerestory level, with smaller similarly detailed windows at ground-floor level in the aisle walls. These ground-floor windows were boarded at the time of a 2016 site visit.

The northern gable rises between the flanking entrances and features a tripartite window of tall, narrow, segmental-arched leaded lights separated by brick mullions, with a wheeled-cross finial at the apex. Bands of light-coloured stone provide detailing to the brick elevation. The south-east gable has a similar window arrangement, here incorporating decorative stained glass within brick segmental arches.

On the west elevation, a brick bell tower stands between the southern entrance porch and the vestry, aligned perpendicular to the main chapel. The tower supports a timber bellcote with the original pulley mechanism and bell still in place, and a lead-coated roof with overhanging eaves supporting a wrought-iron weather vane.

The interior is accessed from the principal entrance on the north-east corner, which leads into a vestibule with coat hooks on the back wall. The eastern wall of the vestibule contains a pair of tall, narrow leaded windows with interlocking segmental-arched heads, simply designed with randomly arranged clear and olive green lights—a pattern replicated elsewhere throughout the chapel. A low glazed-tiled recess provides a backdrop to a cast-iron radiator, a motif repeated throughout the interior.

The main chapel space appears tunnel-like with a barrel vaulted ceiling subtly divided into the building's eleven bays by moulded plaster arches extending down the walls to the base of the clerestory. Beneath the clerestory, arcades run the length of the nave on both sides. The walls are plastered throughout, providing contrast to the brick surrounds of the arcades and the brick arch marking the transition from nave to chancel. The arcades are formed of stone plinths supporting brick piers with moulded stone springers providing the base for elliptical, segmental brick arches. Above each arch, within the clerestory, a pair of windows is recessed into a tapering opening. Beneath each arch, set back on the external wall of the aisles, is an arched recess with a smaller window version in its top half and glazed-tile lining in the lower half as a backdrop to cast-iron radiators, which remain in situ throughout.

A blind arcade is applied to the northern gable wall, giving the impression of continuity around three sides of the nave. The chancel was inaccessible during the 2016 site visit but appears to replicate the nave's decorative detailing. Photographic evidence suggests a full-height arch leads from the chancel to the single-storey porch visible externally.

Parquet flooring survives throughout the nave and probably the chancel, though the latter could not be confirmed. Although original light fittings have been replaced, the chapel was designed with electric lighting, and original brass light switches survive.