University College Hospital General Block Only And Attached Railings

CAMDEN

TQ2982SW GOWER STREET 798-1/93/615 (West side) 12/03/74 University College Hospital General Block only and attached railings

GV II

Hospital block. 1897-1906. By Alfred and Paul Waterhouse. Red brick with terracotta horizontal bands and dressings. Steeply pitched slated roofs with dormers. Cross-shaped plan set diagonally to Gower Street. EXTERIOR: 4 main storeys, attics and basements. Central entrance lodge; 3 bays, 2 storeys and attic with terracotta bands and rounded angles. Round-arched ground floor openings. Central entrance flanked by columns supporting an entablature with parapet and ball finials. Segmental arched 1st floor sashes separated by pilasters supporting a projecting dentil cornice and pediment over the central bays. Pediment flanked by full size sash window dormers in steep mansard roof. Main buildings with central staircase projection with 3 lancet windows and steep pointed roof behind which a bell tower with spire. To either side, tall chimney-stacks and pots. Diagonally from this feature, wings with projecting 2-window, pedimented bays. Main range of windows with enriched surrounds and pierced decorative grilles to aprons. Wings terminate with a bay of balconies to each floor and 3-window rectangular towers, with dormers corbelled at the angles, and surmounted by pointed roofs with rectangular, louvred features. Main cornice at attic level. INTERIOR: not inspected. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached cast-iron railings with parapet wall behind area basement blocks. HISTORICAL NOTE: important as the first reaction against Florence Nightingale's long-pervasive pavilion planning, and the first importation of American ideas on 'towers of healing' for city sites. (Survey of London: Vol. XXI, Tottenham Court Road and Neighbourhood, St Pancras III: London: -1949: 85-6).

Listing NGR: TQ2947882220