Butterfield Wing, Royal Hampshire County Hospital

The Butterfield Wing of the Royal Hampshire County Hospital is a hospital building constructed between 1863 and 1868 by William Butterfield in a Gothic style. It represents Butterfield's only design for a public hospital, diverging from the common pavilion plan by orienting the wards east to west with access to a balcony, and incorporating bathrooms and lavatories within projecting, semi-separate corner towers. A central core housed rooms for night nurses, alongside a wide staircase and a chapel on the top floor. The building is constructed of red brick with polychromatic decoration using black brick. It has a slate roof and is three storeys high, displaying irregular window placement.

The east end features a chapel east window with a rose window, flanked by two-storey hipped pavilions. The north, or entrance front, exhibits two gables to the east; the left gable includes a traceried window with quatrefoil motifs, while the right has trefoliated windows. The lower floors are characterised by five 4-centred arches, incorporating pseudo-machicolations and black diaper brickwork. A gambrel roof tops the central section, with projecting gables housing a Porter’s Lodge on the ground floor, featuring a five-light bay with Caernarvon arches, followed by a projecting transept with two tall trefoliated windows and a clock in the gable. To the extreme right, the second floor has four cambered windows, with the lower floors mirroring the 4-centred arches and sash windows previously described. The wing terminates in a three-storey pyramidal tower, now connected to a later wing of less significance.

The rear elevation showcases an arched window with quatrefoils and trefoils to the extreme right, and a Caernarvon arched window with three quatrefoils and four trefoils to the left. Further to the left is an arched window containing a single quatrefoil and two trefoils. Lower floors are partially obscured by 20th-century infill. A central pavilion with a 4:4:3:3 window arrangement and a ward block with 20th-century extensions are also present.

Internally, the wing features a wide staircase with a mahogany handrail and iron balusters. The chapel retains its original roof and the east window, dating from 1881, contains stained glass by Clayton and Bell depicting various of Christ’s healing miracles. A further stained glass window to the south depicts charitable works.