Uffculme Hospital

SP 08 SE 997/12/10171

BIRMINGHAM QUEENSBRIDGE ROAD Kings Heath Uffculme (Hospital)

II

House, now hospital. 1891, by William Jenkins for Richard Cadbury. Red brick with Portland stone dressings. Slate roofs with shaped gables with finials. Brick axial and gable-end stacks with stone dressings. PLAN: Large house divided by a large full-height central hall with an oriel at the north front and a semi-circular conservatory at the other end on the south garden front; small entrance hall to the side of the hall with a porte-cochere on the north front; service wing on the west side. Jacobethan style. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and attic. Moulded stone stringcourses and coping, quoins and stone mullion-transom windows. Asymmetrical north front with projecting entrance at centre with shaped gable with large stone tetrastyle porte-cochere, the columns with big pedestals and with bay window above; large canted oriel to left with balustrade and shaped gable above; short wing projecting on left with shaped gable end. The south garden front has large semi-circular cast-iron conservatory at the centre, re-clad in plate-glass and with lead domed roof with clerestory; to left and right taller 2-bay ranges, each with two small shaped gables and 2-storey stone bay windows, the left canted, the right semi-circular with balustrade on top; lower 2-storey wing set back on left with small gables to first floor windows and glazed single-storey addition in front. The east elevation has shaped gables, bays and C20 2-storey wing. INTERIOR dominated by enormous central hall, extending from the front to the back of the house; it has closely spaced piers with paired brackets supporting a gallery running around three sides of the room with a large oriel at the front; the hall has arch-braced roof trusses with tracery above the collars and with roof lights; a wide imperial staircase rises from the east side of the hall with stained glass window on the landing. Also a stained glass window from gallery to the conservatory; the conservatory now has an inserted floor and has been re-glazed, but the cast-iron structure is intact, with its slender fluted wall columns and central column supporting arches radiating from the centre to the walls. Much of the original joinery also remains including finely inlaid doors and chimneypieces. NOTE: Richard Cadbury and his younger brother George were joint heads of Cadburys, the chocolate manufacturers. George Cadbury founded the Bournville Village Trust. This Quaker family were known for their philanthropy and the hall at Uffculme is thought to have been used for entertaining and for charity events. SOURCE: Boeke, B., Richard and Emma Cadbury.

Listing NGR: SP0709482557