Highcroft Hospital Front Entrance Range

This is the front entrance range of the former Aston Union Workhouse, located on Highcroft Road in Birmingham. Built in 1869, it was designed by Yeoville Thomason. The building is constructed of red brick with stone and blue brick detailing and decoration, including terracotta plaques. It has tiled gabled roofs, prominent finials, and tall brick chimney stacks.

The central feature is a large archway flanked by two ranges, each with three projecting, gabled bays. The arch itself is made of banded red and blue brick and stone, topped with a moulded hood supported by stone stiff-leaf bands. Decorative brick modillions and mouldings run along the gable eaves. The vault within the archway features an open hammerbeam roof. The wings have pointed arch windows in most of the projecting bays, with some featuring stained glass top lights. Blind brick oculi are found in the penultimate gables. A blocking course frieze is decorated with enriched terracotta tablets.

Inside, a corridor is tiled in blue and red quarry tiles with a zig-zag patterned border. The boardroom has Gothic window and door surrounds and roof trusses supported by colonette corbels. A liver-coloured marble fireplace, with an overplaque, marks the occasion of its re-erection in 1889, a project undertaken by J G Dunn ARIBA and P W Hipkiss.