Dead House, Royal Naval Hospital, Haslar

A mortuary dating from the mid-C19 with an 1869 addition, built for the Royal Naval Hospital, Haslar.

MATERIALS: the earlier part of the building is red brick laid in Flemish bond with gauged brick arches and a hipped slate roof with a brick chimneystack. The 1869 addition is in red brick with bands of blue brick, also laid in Flemish bond; it has stone dressings, gauged brick window arches and a tiled roof.

PLAN: a single-storey linear building orientated south-west to north-east. The earliest section is to the south, and is a single rectangular cell, linked on the north-east end to the 1869 addition by a short corridor which leads to a second single room with a substantial porch, now blocked, on its north-east end.

EXTERIOR: the 1850s building is two bays wide and three bays long, with an opening to each bay with a gauged brick flat arch. Windows are hornless, six-over-six pane sashes with projecting stone cills. The door is on the left on the north-west elevation. The south-east elevation is entirely rendered. There is a brick plinth and projecting courses of bricks below the eaves. The two windows on the north-east elevation are blind and are interrupted by the linking range to the 1869 building.

The 1869 building is a small square block with a pyramidal roof with small ventilating dormers. There is a pair of lancet windows to each side elevation; all windows are uniformly detailed and have round, gauged brick heads, chamfered surrounds with stone cills, and leaded lights with marginal metal glazing bars. The building has a brick plinth and there is a dentil cornice of bricks laid on the diagonal below the eaves. The porch, on the north-east end, is a pitched projection with a round-arched doorway with a gauged brick head and chamfered architrave; the door itself is solid timber with ornate strap hinges incorporating leaf motifs. The porch gable has stone copings with shaped kneelers and a metal cross at the apex. The return elevations of the porch have a single window beneath a pitched dormer with dressed stone detailing. The pitched linking corridor has two small lunette windows on either side.

INTERIORS: the interiors of both sections of the building are plainly detailed and with modern floor coverings and skirtings. The earlier part of the building has an inserted partition creating an entrance lobby, leading to the original mortuary on the right, and the linking corridor on the left. The original mortuary is open to the roof, which has timber trusses and a lantern. The linking corridor has exposed rafters, and the secondary mortuary room has an inserted ceiling; the original roof structure survives above.