Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital

This hospital for women was built in 1889-90 by J.M. Brydon as the New Hospital for Women, the first purpose-built hospital devoted to women doctors treating female patients. It is constructed of stock brick with red brick dressings in the Queen Anne style, with a tiled roof and timber cupola.

The building comprises a rectangular front block parallel with Euston Road, linked to an administrative block along Churchway, with later additions to the north and east of lesser architectural interest. Only the first generation buildings are listed.

The main frontage block on Euston Road rises three storeys with an attic. It is a four-bay front with the entrance to the left, marked by a projecting porch of red brick with a moulded arched opening flanked by blocked pilasters. A prominent central chimney stack (now truncated) is decorated with a cut brick cartouche within a pedimented aedicular surround, inscribed FOUNDED 1866, at second floor level, alongside a long framed inscription panel. Rusticated quoins of red brick flank the bays. The windows are segmental-arched, originally fitted with 6/6-pane sashes (now replaced with UPVC copies), with keystones over the centre bays. A modillion cornice in brick runs below the roof line. The mansard roof features a pair of windows within a brick surround flanking the chimney stack, with lesser dormers either side. To the right, separated by a recessed link, stands a single-bay tower of three storeys topped with a weatherboarded superstructure supporting an ogee roof. The ground floor is open with an altered formerly arched opening; the first floor has a segmental-arched window; the second floor has a 6/6-pane sash window within a rusticated, pediment-topped surround; the third has a round window within a rusticated surround flanked by pilasters. The west-facing return elevation of the frontage block features a two-storey canted bay at ground and first floor levels with a segmental pediment enriched with cut brick decoration at the top. At second floor level is a Venetian window set within a depressed relieving arch. Three small windows pierce the gable end.

The former administrative block on Churchway is linked to the frontage block by arched, infilled balconies. It has a three-bay front with a central canted bay. Paired windows light the ground floor, while tall 9/9-pane sashes occupy the first floor and 6/6-pane sashes the second. A modillion cornice runs below the attic storey, which features a tall centrepiece that formerly supported a tall ornamental spirelet on an octagonal base. The south-facing gable end displays truncated chimney stacks, formerly linked by an arch.

The interior has been much altered, though some memorial plaques over former bed positions remain in place.

The hospital was opened in 1890, with the foundation stone laid by the Princess of Wales in 1889. Brydon exhibited drawings of the building at the 1890 Royal Academy. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836-1917), who led the movement for women doctors, had founded a hospital ward at her dispensary in Marylebone in 1874. The Euston Road hospital combined teaching hospital provision (initially with 42 beds) with premises for the Women's Medical Institute, situated on the ground floor of the frontage block. The original layout was distinguished by a circular ward block at the north end and open connecting balconies between blocks, reflecting the direct involvement of Florence Nightingale and her nephew Sir Douglas Galton. The hospital expanded considerably in the 1920s to the north and east, replacing the circular ward block with a large rectangular structure. Despite external and internal alterations, the first generation buildings retain very considerable historic interest as the country's first proper hospital for women. The Euston Road frontage block is of particular architectural merit as the most impressive surviving element, and for its original accommodation of the Women's Medical Institute on the ground floor with wards above.