Chapel At Graylingwell Hospital

Chapel. Built between 1895 and 1897 as the chapel for the West Sussex County Lunatic Asylum, later known as Graylingwell Hospital, to the design of Sir Arthur Blomfield and Sons. The building is faced in local flint with stone ashlar dressings, and has a clay tile roof.

The chapel stands detached, with a four-bay nave, side aisles, a south transept, and a chancel comprising a short choir and sanctuary. The west end has a narthex porch with a central entrance, flanked by small projecting square porches. Each side porch has its own door, providing separate access for male and female patients, as well as small rest rooms.

The architectural style is Early English Gothic Revival. The east wall has triple lancet windows; two pairs of lancets are on the west wall; lancet windows are to the aisles, and there are oculi to the clerestory. The transept window has plate tracery. A flèche rises from the east gable-end of the nave.

The interior is simply furnished, with benches to the nave and choir, each having poppyhead ends. The east and west walls contain figurative stained glass by Heaton, Butler and Bayne. There is also a memorial window dedicated to hospital staff who died in the First World War. A pulpit features ogee arches and carved spandrels. A coloured mosaic reredos is also present, with a crown-post roof above.

The hospital itself was built between 1895 and 1897, originally as the West Sussex County Lunatic Asylum. Further blocks were added between 1901 and 1902, increasing the capacity to 750 beds. Three further blocks, along with a nurses' home, were built in 1933, bringing the total capacity to 1,045 beds. The site was divided, with female and male patients accommodated on separate sides, a feature reflected in the chapel's design with its separate entrances.

The chapel is a well-preserved example of a large, detached asylum chapel dating from 1895 to 1897, and is comparable in scale to a parish church. Designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield, it features fine stained-glass windows. The separate entrances for men and women, along with the associated rest rooms, clearly identify its original specialist function. It is an important feature within the hospital grounds, which are registered as an historic park.