Mundesley Hospital

Mundesley Hospital is a tuberculosis sanatorium built in 1898-9 by Boulton and Paul of Norwich for Dr F W Burton-Fanning, consultant to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. It was extended circa 1923.

The building employs a prefabricated timber frame on a brick base, weatherboarded with applied sham timber framing. It has a corrugated sheet iron gabled roof and brick axial stacks. The plan consists of a long range facing south with cross-wings at the centre and at either end. The right (east) wing contains the entrance hall; the left (west) wing is extended by one gable and has a service wing behind to the northwest. The entrance hall leads to an axial corridor along the back with stairs at either end. The south front contains a drawing room, ladies room, reading room, smoking room and dining room opening onto a verandah; these rooms have been subdivided to form wards. A large extension was built on the right southeast corner circa 1923.

The exterior is two storeys, with the cross wings rising to attics. The south front has a 4:2:2:2:3 bay arrangement with projecting gabled cross wings to left and right; the left wing has triple gables. At the centre, the attic gable is jettied out on brackets. Windows are 3-light mullion transom casements with glazing bars in the top lights. A glazed roof verandah features elliptical arches with pendants on baluster posts. Inside the verandah, doorways have overlights and Tudor arches with carved spandrels inscribed 'Boulton and Paul Norwich 1899'. Gabled cross-wings project at the rear, with the right (west) wing containing a service wing. A single storey brick extension to the entrance on the east side dates to circa 1923.

The interior contains later partitions and alterations. Two staircases have ogee arcade balustrades and heavy moulded handrails.

Mundesley Hospital was established by F W Burton-Fanning as a tuberculosis sanatorium for wealthy patients. It was one of the first private TB sanatoria and the first large one to be built in England. It was modelled on TB sanatoria in Germany and Switzerland where open-air treatment had been pioneered. The sanatorium is a large prefabricated building which served as a model for a standardised design developed and marketed by Boulton and Paul.