Former Nurses' Home and Outpatients' Clinic at Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital

Former Nurses' Home and Outpatients' Clinic at Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital

The former Nurses' Home

Built in red brick with stone dressings and a tiled pitched roof with overhanging eaves and four axial ridge stacks in brick, plus an external gable stack at its south end. The building follows a five-bay rectangular plan, probably of double width with a central corridor running its full length and a stairwell at its south end near the nurses' entrance. Wings extending from the north end and walls enclosing a courtyard date from the later 1930s and are not of special interest.

The front elevation features two projecting bays at either end, each with decorative timber barge-boards to the pitched roof, each carved with a crocodile to the centre. Each projecting bay has a canted bay window at ground floor level with double-chamfered windows, and a square bay window with chamfered mullioned twin windows above, both with castellated parapets. The gables above the bays contain decorative timber framing surrounding a central four-light timber casement window. The three central bays have stone mullioned windows to the ground floor and a just off-centre round-arched entrance porch with steps leading up to it. The first floor, now pebble-dashed and replacing former tile-hanging, has six by two light timber casement windows to each bay, with four light flat-roofed dormers above, possibly inserted later.

The rear elevation is of similar design, though with only slightly projecting outer gables and two smaller gables to the centre, all with decorative timber barge boards and timber framing matching the front. The two outer gables have stone mullion windows at first floor level. Tile hanging covers the first floor with attic above, with remaining windows being a mixture of timber and metal casement windows.

The projecting south gable end, probably containing the stairwell with a room at the top floor, has a small two-storey lean-to with a tiled roof to its left. It has a round-arched entrance to the ground floor (probably the nurses' entrance) with a stone mullion window to the left above and to the right above is a decorative stone plaque inscribed: "This foundation stone inaugurating the extension and reconstruction of this hospital was laid by the Countess of Craven 26th July 1906 A Hessell Tiltman FRIBA Herbert W Chattaway Joint Architects".

The interior could not be inspected.

The former Outpatients' Clinic

Built in red brick with a tiled octagonal roof having overhanging eaves and terminating in a lead-covered, louvered ventilation fleche. The plan comprises a central octagonal double-height waiting hall surrounded by single storey projecting flat-roofed clinics. Two late 20th-century single storey flat-roofed annexes to the south-east and south-west, linked to the main building by a covered walkway, are not of special interest.

The alternate sides of the octagonal waiting hall are lit by tall windows with glazing bars and small square-leaded panes, which rise through the roof and terminate with hipped roofs and finials. The clinics have cambered arch sashes in moulded brick surrounds and wide segmental-headed windows, with a continuous tile-capped blocking course. Original shaped rainwater heads and down-pipes survive.

The interior is plain with doors leading off into the individual clinics and the original ventilation system surviving. Set in the wall surrounding the central hall, outside one of the individual clinic entrances, is a small drinking fountain. The hall contains a demountable mezzanine floor, installed in the late 20th century. The central ventilation fleche to the plastered dome rests on a circular cast iron ring inscribed with the name James Keith & Blackman.