Nurses Home At Wanstead Hospital

The Nurses Home at Wanstead Hospital is an infirmary built between 1900 and 1901 for the Merchant Seaman's Orphan Asylum, designed by Arnold Mitchell, who served as the surveyor for the Orphanage from 1898 to 1913. The building is constructed of red brick in English bond, accented with blue brick bands and ashlar dressings. It features a graduated lakeland slate roof, with Welsh slate used for an addition.

The structure has a half-butterfly plan, consisting of two storeys and 14 bays arranged in a 4:6:4 pattern, with the six central bays forming two shallow canted projections. An added gabled cross-wing is located at the right end. The windows are tall 18-pane sashes with 6-pane overlights and wooden sills. On the ground floor, the windows are set below 4-centred arches made of alternating red and blue brick "voussoirs" and brick tympanums. The first-floor windows feature stone lintels and rise through the eaves beneath stepped gables that have moulded stone coping.

At the centre, the first-floor windows are positioned below a parapet with wavy stone coping and stone quasi-rainwater spouts. The stepped end gables also have moulded stone coping. The roof includes three decorative vents, with the central vent being larger and more elaborate than the outer polygonal vents, which are single-stage with flat circular roofs. The central vent is octagonal and has two stages, featuring arched braces, slate-hung bases, baluster-like columns supporting the roofs, and tall finials.

There are stacks at either end and along the ridge flanking the centre. The cross-wing on the right has a door in the left return beneath a gabled first-floor window, and the gable end features iron steps leading to a first-floor door with side-lights and an arched niche at the apex. The rear of the building maintains the same style, with the three central bays forming a canted projection and having 15-pane sashes on the first floor, flanked by short angled wings. The left wing is fronted by a later addition that is not of special interest, and there is a single-storey addition in the angle with the cross-wing that is also not of special interest.