Eastman Dental Hospital (former Eastman Dental Clinic)

Eastman Dental Hospital (formerly Eastman Dental Clinic)

Dental clinic built between 1928 and 1931 to designs by Sir John Burnet and Partners. The building is of steel-frame construction clad in brown brick with Portland stone dressings, and comprises two storeys arranged as a central block of seven bays flanked by lower three-bay cross wings with an additional mezzanine floor over a raised basement.

The plan centres on a cruciform entrance hall with small rooms set within the angles of the cross. To the left, a large waiting room leads through to the north wing. A central corridor to the right connects large rooms on either side and leads through to the south wing and staircases. The room plans of each wing differ and have been subsequently altered. The upper floor of the central block originally contained a large open-plan treatment room for children. The north wing has been considerably altered internally and interlinked with adjoining hospital buildings.

The exterior displays a symmetrical façade in restrained Beaux-Arts-influenced Classical style. The central seven-bay block has an arcaded ground floor with keystones, where the central three bays form an engaged portico with a taller central arch carried on Tuscan columns. Arches to the two flanking bays are linked by plain impost bands and contain recessed windows with tympana featuring herringbone brickwork and a stone lozenge motif. The porch is groin-vaulted. The entrance has a moulded stone architrave and dentilled cornice. The tympanum contains a carved stone cartouche depicting a mother and child, flanked by cornucopiae and enclosed within a glazed fanlight. The panelled double doors feature brass letterboxes with an owl motif and a rectangular fanlight. Arched window bays flanking the entrance and to the inner porch sides receive the same decorative treatment as the ground floor windows. Steps lead to the entrance, which is flanked by pedestals bearing sculptures of seated boys; the ironwork is now missing. Ashlar area walls to the central recessed block continue flush with the stone-faced basement of the flanking wings. The wings contain three windows each, plus a window to the inner return; ground floor and mezzanine windows are set within continuous vertical recesses with stone aprons to the upper windows. A string course separates the floors. Upper floor windows have plain reveals. The original steel Crittall windows have been replaced in late twentieth-century alterations. The rear elevation is plainly finished.

The interior features glazed timber inner doors opening into a vaulted entrance hall retaining original fittings and decorative finishes. Art Deco suspended wooden light fittings with decorative etched glass lights depicting owls illuminate the space. The walls are lined with buff polished marble with gold fluted friezes and black marble bands to door surrounds, the entrance fanlight, and above skirtings. Inset bas-relief panels of children playing appear above the doors on the east side and windows on the west side of the four corner rooms opening from the entrance hall. The floor comprises inlaid coloured marble with a large central geometric pattern formed as an eight-pointed star within a circle, complementing the central circular compartment of the ceiling above.

The waiting room to the north retains oak dado panelling with a patterned frieze, black ebonised skirtings, and door surrounds. Octagonal timber-clad columns at each corner support the angles of the coved ceiling, which features a gold fluted frieze to the walls and column heads.

Open well stairs to the side wings have solid, staggered balustrades with bronze handrails. The large first floor treatment room was refurbished in 1990 and fitted with a suspended ceiling. A number of original glazed timber doors survive.