Queen Elizabeth Hospital (Comprising Main Block And Attached Former Nurses Home And Former Wards)

Queen Elizabeth Hospital

This building complex comprises a main block with attached former nurses' home and former ward block, located on the south side of Holly Lane in Banstead.

The site has a complex building history. A house called Banstead Wood was originally built here between 1884 and 1890 by R Norman Shaw for the Garton family. The original Shaw house was constructed in brick and tile hung with plain tile roofs and large star-shaped stocks. It was of 2 storeys and attic under gabled dormers, with an asymmetrical plan featuring a projecting wing of 2 bays to the left with wood-framed windows with moulded mullions and transoms and leaded casements. A tile-hung dormer in the re-entrant angle linked to a right-hand 3-bay wing, also with mullioned windows with leaded lights. The right-hand end had a 3-storey gable front with two windows in an angle bay rising through two storeys over the main entrance. The entrance itself had a Doric portico with fluted half columns, dentilled cornices, and a moulded and rusticated door arch leading to a 6-panel door with diamond patterning and studs.

The building was converted to hospital use in 1937–1939 through a design by H S Goodhart-Rendel that incorporated the remains of the Shaw house. However, the original house was extensively damaged by fire in 1939 and was subsequently rebuilt to Goodhart-Rendel's design.

The main block is of 2 storeys with attic and partial basement, constructed in red brick in English bond to the ground floor with tile-hung upper floors featuring much fish-scale tile. It has a plain tile roof and an 8-bay garden elevation. The garden-facing windows are wood-framed with moulded mullions and transoms and leaded casements. Bays 1 to 5 are set forward under 3 oversailing gables with 2-storey canted bay windows to alternate bays. Bays 6 and 7 are set back and feature a gabled dormer and large set-back gable. Bay 8 is set in line, gabled, and has a 2-storey canted bay window. Tall cross-ridge stacks with arched panels rise from the roof. A single-storey flat-roofed former kitchen block sits to the right of the main block.

A corridor to the right of the main block links it to a 3-storey former ward block of 25 bays. This block is steel-framed with concrete panels and brick cladding. Each floor is set back from that below, with the second floor being less wide (21 bays) and having balcony rails to the upper floors. The wards were originally open-fronted but in the 1940s were fitted with metal-framed doors and windows. Three rear wings with hipped roofs rise from the rear roof slope. A water tower with concrete bands sits at the right end to the rear, with a tile-hung stair tower to the rear left and a hipped roof with gablets.

A return range to the rear left of the main block links it to the former nurses' home. This left return range follows the same style as the garden elevation, with 3 bays under 2 oversailing gables on the right of a lateral stack with a lower projecting bay on the right. Further left is a lower block of 1 storey with attic and 2 bays, featuring half-timbered gables with pebble-dashed infill, which is probably part of the original Shaw house.

The former nurses' home is of butterfly plan, forming a corner of the rear courtyard. It is of 3 storeys with attic and has 11 first-floor windows on its courtyard elevation. It features a panelled door on the right of the left return range, metal casement windows, and gabled dormers. The courtyard elevation has an entry at the right end and a 3rd-floor cornice which rises under a pent roof to 3 wide gables, one at the left end and 2 at the right end.

The courtyard elevation of the main block features an entrance bay with a decorative ashlar doorcase to a panelled arched door, with a cornice on fluted columns supporting a 2-storey canted bay window. To the left is an outskirt with a panelled door and wide window, along with various gabled dormers and tall ribbed stacks. Reused rainwater heads dated 1884 are visible.

Goodhart-Rendel's design for the hospital centred on the Shaw house, which was to become the administrative block. Originally, a second ward block further to the right and another nurses' home to complete the rear courtyard were planned, but work was interrupted by war and these were never built.