Ellesmere Hospital

This is a former convalescent hospital dating from 1850 to 1853, originally known as The Metropolitan Convalescent Institution and designed by Joseph Clarke. A left-hand wing was added in 1861, and a right-hand wing in 1868, both to Clarke’s original design.

The building is constructed of red brick with stone quoins, a first-floor band, an entablature, and stone dressings to the front, with yellow stock brick to the rear. It has slated pitched roofs and tall brick chimney stacks. The design is symmetrical and in a classical style, with a central projecting bay of three windows and wings of sixteen windows each, the end pavilions slightly projecting. The central bay is two storeys high with an attic and basement, while the wings are two storeys high. The ground floor features round-arched openings. The main entrance has a rusticated and channelled stone surround with a mask keystone. Flanking windows share similar surrounds and have margin glazing. Above the entrance is a tripartite window with columns formed by a caduceus surmounted by a mask, and a rusticated keystone. All windows are hornless sashes with glazing bars. Ground-floor windows have gauged brick heads, while those in the projecting bays have triple keystones and lugged cills. First-floor windows have cambered heads, all with triple keystones. The central entablature is inscribed "Metropolitan Convalescent Institution/Instituted AD MDCCCXLI/ Supported by Voluntary Contributions". The left-hand wing is inscribed "Enlarged AD MDCCCLXI," and the right-hand wing reads "The Marner Wing Erected AD MDCCCLXVIII”. The rear facade is of gault brick, with twentieth-century flat-roofed extensions that are not of special architectural interest.

The Metropolitan Convalescent Institution was founded by Theodore Monro, who, concerned about the lack of convalescent facilities for the sick poor, arranged for patients from London to recover in Harrow Weald. A meeting in 1841 formally established the institution, initially using the old workhouse at Carshalton as a temporary home. A fund was raised in the late 1840s for a purpose-built building, and Lord Ellesmere donated five acres of land at Walton on Thames in 1850. This early example of its type served its original purpose until it closed in 1963.