French Convalescent Home And Attached Wall And Railings

Convalescent Home and Attached Wall and Railings

This convalescent home was built between 1895 and 1907 to provide recovery care for patients from the French Hospital in Shaftesbury Avenue, London, funded by the French Government. The architects Clayton and Black designed it in François Premier Revival style, constructing the building in stages as funding became available. The foundation stone was laid on 5 October 1895 by Baron de Courcel, the French Ambassador, and the building opened on 8 October 1898, also by the Baron de Courcel. The central section was completed first, followed by the eastern Gambon pavilion in 1904 (named after the French Ambassador of that date) and the western Ruffer pavilion in 1907 (named after the honorary President of the French Hospital). The building underwent late twentieth-century alterations including refronting, insertion of a new lift shaft, and demolition of chimneystacks.

The exterior is built of Belgian stock bricks, now covered with cement render, with stone dressings and steeply pitched slate roofs with metal cresting to the pavilion roofs. The specification called for suspended concrete flooring and secondary glazing with internal and external wooden frames to most windows on the south or sea-facing side and many on the north side. The building is two storeys and attics with mainly mullioned and transomed wooden casements. The north or entrance front has a recessed centre with cornice and small triangular gable, six mullioned and transomed windows, and central double doors with stained glass approached by an impressive staircase with balustrading and finials. This is flanked by two projecting pavilions with three windows to the left pavilion and two to the right, each with granite foundation tablets. Attached to these are recessed sections of one bay, then flat-roofed sections with mullioned and transomed windows and fire escapes, with the elevation terminating in pavilions. The south or garden front has a central section of three storeys and attics with five bays, flanked by pavilions of four storeys with three windows each. The central part is dated 1898 with lettering reading "FRENCH CONVALESCENT HOME". The recessed central three bays feature a clock in a finial above the parapet above the central window. A colonnade to the ground floor has four round-headed arches, which formerly had pierced balustrading but this was filled in when the cement rendering was added. The projecting end bays have curved gables and two-storey canted bays to the lower floors. The eastern or Gambon pavilion, built in 1904, has a steeply pitched roof with cresting and corner turret and round-headed windows. The ground floor has two lancet windows to the chapel and a four-centred arched doorcase with hood moulding and foundation tablet with date above. There are cornice and bands between floors. The left-side lift shaft was an original feature but was extended in height in the late twentieth century. The ground floor room between the centre and Gambon pavilion, of two bays, has a parapet originally with pierced balustrading, now covered over. The Ruffer pavilion of 1907 to the west is a mirror image, with the difference that a lift shaft was later inserted to the right, blocking earlier windows. The ground floor windows are rectangular mullioned and transomed casements, and the central doorcase was converted into a window when the Billiard Room was subdivided. Attached to the north front is a low cemented wall with piers at regular intervals, with cast iron spear railings extending around the garden.

Interior features include an entrance hall at first floor level in the centre of the north front. The front door and adjoining window have stained glass. An oak well staircase has two turned balusters to each tread and square newel posts with ball finials, with a ceiling rose and grille halfway up. To the west of the front door is an attached bronze, probably French, dating from c.1905, in memory of Dr Achille Vintras, the founder and chief doctor of the French Hospital. This features a central oval with bay leaves and inscription flanked by a sorrowing mother and children to the left and a nun with the plans of the French Convalescent Home to the right. There are two smaller circular plaques in an adjoining corridor and adjoining round-headed arched colonnading. Corridors have green dado tiling and glazed partitions with terrazzo floors reported (now covered in carpeting). Many ceilings have late twentieth-century acoustic tiles with plain ribs visible where exposed. Some original doors survive, though many were replaced in the late twentieth century. The chapel on the ground floor of the Gambon pavilion comprises three bays with wooden brackets to the ceiling, wooden dado panelling, and an arched recess with a marble altar which had painted decoration, now mostly covered over. There are four stained glass windows depicting The Virgin and Child, St Vincent, and the Sacred Heart. Other communal rooms on the ground floor, the Dining Room and two Sitting Rooms, have minimal decoration, though the central Sitting Room has a column with fluted capital. Wood block floors survive in some areas but original fireplaces have been removed. The kitchens retain black and white marble flooring. The original Billiard Room on the ground floor of the Ruffer pavilion has been subdivided. Wooden tablets to benefactors are located outside a small Sitting Room. The eastern lift shaft is original, though the lifts have been replaced. A twentieth-century glazed firescreen is positioned at the head of the main stairs. A smaller oak service staircase is also present. The attics retain some original doors and original laundry cupboards.

This is the only known French Convalescent Home in the country. The nuns were replaced by lay nursing staff in 1994. Even from the outset, it did not cater exclusively for French nationals; during the First World War it accepted British war wounded and received a certificate of appreciation from the War Council as a result. There is no other known example of secondary glazing in England at this date, although it was common on the Continent. The suspended concrete floors were not unusual in hospitals by this date.