The Warneford Hospital

The Warneford Hospital

A mental hospital built between 1821 and 1826 by Richard Ingleman of Southwell, originally as the Oxford Lunatic Asylum. The building was extended in 1852 by J.C. Buckler, in 1877 by William Wilkinson, and again in 1887. It is constructed in Headington stone ashlar, with slate hipped roofs and ashlar stacks finished with moulded cornices. The centre of the south-west front of the original range is rendered.

The original 1821-26 asylum comprises a long symmetrical range facing south-west. The three-storey centre block contains a central entrance hall flanked at the front by male and female parlours and staircases, and at the back a central reception room with the offices of the governor and matron. The lower two-storey male and female wings have axial galleries (wide corridors) at the front with patients' rooms behind; the ends of the wings project and contained day rooms for violent patients. The wings were extended in 1852. To the front were male and female airing courts for the "superior class", and to the back were second and third class airing courts with a central passage leading to a service block. In 1877 the service block was replaced by a new front block comprising a single-storey range with an entrance hall and waiting rooms, with a two-storey block behind containing a recreation hall and a large clock tower behind in French chateau style. A female wing was added to the north-west, though the male wing to the south-east was not built until 1887-90.

The south-west front of the original 1821-26 asylum displays a three, six, seven, six, three bay arrangement. The seven-bay centre block is three storeys tall, with the centre three bays breaking forward beneath a pediment. Windows are cross-mullion-transom iron windows with glazing bars in chamfered openings. The ground and first floors have been replaced by sashes except for the centre first floor. Later nineteenth-century two-storey bow windows flank the central doorway, which has a stone porch with a four-centred arch. The two-storey flanking wings have projecting end bays. The rear elevation features a three-storey bow at the centre and two-storey bows to left and right, with bows also on the ends. The original range is connected to the 1877 extension by a single-storey corridor.

The north-east front contains a single-storey range with a central portico featuring pairs of pilasters, a carved pediment, and a round-arch doorway. Pilastered bays to right and left have arched lights and a lantern above. Behind stands the two-storey recreation hall, with a large clock tower behind that, featuring a steep hipped roof with ironwork cresting and aedicules breaking the eaves, punctuated by clock faces. Flanking single-storey wings with bow windows and large two-storey outer wings, also with bows, complete this front.

The interior of the original 1821-26 range includes a central reception room with a bow window to the corridor, a simple chimneypiece, a mahogany cupboard, and a Gothick style safe. The female parlour has a chimneypiece with consoles and a hatch to the corridor. Staircases feature stick balusters and a wreathed mahogany handrail. The corridor is defined by arched partitions and panelled and glazed doors. The main entrance in the 1877 addition contains a lantern over a polygonal vestibule housing a seated marble statue of Dr Warneford by Peter Hollins, dated 1840. The recreation hall features elaborate trusses cutting through a deep cornice and a carved stone chimneypiece.

The hospital was originally planned to be built at the Radcliffe Infirmary but was constructed on this site instead. Originally known as the Oxford Lunatic Asylum, then the Radcliffe Asylum, it became the Warneford Lunatic Asylum after 1843. It was intended for non-pauper patients, with three classes available according to financial circumstances.