Former Skegness Convalescent Home

Former Skegness Convalescent Home

This former convalescent home was built in 1926 to the designs of William Henry Ansell. It is constructed in red brick with stone dressings and a roof covering of red pantiles.

The building comprises a large central block with wings at an angle linked to lower pavilions on the east and west sides. A twentieth-century extension adjoins the west side of the west pavilion.

The former convalescent home is designed in the neo-Georgian style. The main three-storey block has a half-hipped roof crowned by a lantern with a wooden balustrade, originally bearing a clock which is no longer in situ. Three-storey cross wings at either end project forwards under slightly lower hipped roofs. The building features a wide projecting stone platband at second-floor sill level and ashlar quoins. The fenestration consists of sash windows with wooden glazing bars, mostly six-over-six, with gauged brick arches to the first-floor windows. The second-floor windows are positioned directly underneath the eaves.

The principal south-facing garden front is of five bays with the end projections adding an additional wide bay each side. A five-bay loggia between the wings has a plain stone frieze and parapet supported by square columns. The loggia openings have been infilled with pairs of French windows with small square panes. The projecting wings have wide canted bay windows with recessed French windows set within stone surrounds. The parapet over the loggia is carried across the canted bays, creating a balcony running the length of the garden front. On the first floor there is a centrally placed canted bay window, flanked by pairs of sash windows. The second floor is lit by wider pairs of sash windows. The wings are lit by sash windows with margin lights on the first floor and a single sash window above.

The north-facing entrance front is more austere. The recessed five-bay central range has six giant pilasters with capitals extending above the second-floor platband. The central entrance is defined by a classical doorcase with a plain frieze supported by square columns. The double-leaf four-panelled door has a large rectangular overlight with square panes. The sash windows decrease in size on the upper floors. The flanking projecting wings have stone plinths and are lit on the ground floor by three sashes and a single sash on the first floor set within a stone surround with fluted jambs and abstract consoles supporting the sill. A single sash window lights the second floor.

The two-storey linking ranges either side have a flat roof, the second-floor platband becoming a stone parapet. They have four bays lit by sash windows, those on the ground floor being larger. On the south garden front, outer bays contain double-leaf panelled doors with glazing in the upper half, set within large stone surrounds with wide lintels. On the east linking block, an external glass corridor has been installed at second-floor level. The flanking three-storey pavilions have three bays on all three elevations, each bay lit by a sash window. The garden elevations are distinguished by centrally placed double-height canted bay windows faced in ashlar. Some of the ground-floor windows have external security bars fitted.

Interior

The central door on the north front leads into the entrance hall, which is flanked by dogleg stairs with concrete steps and metal balusters supporting a moulded wooden handrail. An axial corridor runs across the length of the building with rooms arranged in a linear plan along the north and south sides. The ground floor contained communal areas and bedrooms were on the upper floors. The ground-floor communal areas retain some restrained detailing, notably cornices and numerous doors with two lower panels and glazing above.

The central corridor has a dado rail, some sections of which have been removed, and is partitioned by a series of segmental arched openings with double-leaf doors and wide plate-glass overlights. The original glazing to the internal doors has been replaced with wired safety glass. The corridor opens via two pairs of double-leaf doors into the principal room, formerly the dining room and latterly the council chamber, which takes up the five bays of the garden front. Each bay is expressed internally by encased ceiling beams, obscured by an inserted ceiling, supported by square pilaster strips. Along the south length of the room are five French windows providing access to the loggia, whilst along the north length is a series of segmental arched openings. Similar openings at either end lead to what were probably sitting or drawing rooms which overlooked the garden through the canted bay windows. One of these is described as the 'Ladies Room' on a historic undated picture postcard. This room, along with the dining room, retains a parquet floor and has a very large wooden fireplace surround in a restrained classical style with an entablature supported by paired pilasters. Fitted wooden cupboards also survive. One of the rooms that formerly belonged to the matron retains a small plain wooden fireplace surround. The decorative treatment of the upper rooms is simple with almost no surviving fixtures and fittings of historic interest.

Subsidiary Features

The main entrance on North Parade to the east is distinguished by paired gatepiers of banded red brick and stone with stone ball finials set half within concave bases. The entrance has double-leaf decorative iron gates and there are smaller gates between each pair of piers. The boundary wall, which extends southwards, is punctuated by five groups of stone balusters along the frieze with banded brick and stone beneath.