Bristol General Hospital

This hospital complex was originally built in 1852–5 to designs by William Bruce Gingell. It was subsequently extended in 1873 and 1888 by Crisp, with further additions in 1895, 1898, 1907, 1912–14, 1915 and 1931 by the architectural partnership of Crisp, Oatley and Lawrence.

Materials and Construction

The original buildings are constructed of squared pitch-faced blue pennant stone with Bath stone dressings beneath slate mansard and gabled roofs featuring stone lateral and ridge stacks. The later additions, designed by Oatley, employed reinforced concrete by Mouchel and Partners. Their external walls were built using concrete blocks made with the 'Winget' system on a metal frame.

Layout

The hospital buildings developed organically and are loosely arranged around a central courtyard. The principal entrance to the complex faces north onto Guinea Street, flanked by a pair of entrance gates mounted on blocked ashlar gate piers with ornate 'lantern' heads. These support cast-iron carriage and pedestrian gates with palmette cresting, each bearing the hospital arms and the dates of the hospital's establishment and construction.

Exterior

Main Hospital Building

The principal hospital building is Italianate in style with a French Empire roof. Along the Lower Guinea Street and Guinea Street elevations, it rises three storeys above a full-height rusticated basement built of diminishing courses of rubble. This basement is punctuated by semicircular-arched entrances with rock-faced jambs, relieved by arcades of semicircular-arched windows between them. The basement originally extended the full length of Lower Guinea Street southward to Commercial Road, but this section was demolished before construction of the 1931 out-patients' wards.

The heaviness of the basement is offset by the upper storeys, which are set back beneath coved eaves. Here the blue pennant stone is laid in random work with clasping rusticated Bath stone pilasters, bands and windows featuring keyed segmental arched heads and blocked jambs. The Lower Guinea Street elevation has fifteen bays, whilst the Guinea Street elevation has fourteen.

A projecting stair tower with Venetian windows appears on the Lower Guinea Street façade, with a four-storey octagonal tower at the right-hand corner supported by paired brackets at the eaves. A 20th-century steel and glass balcony has been added to the Lower Guinea Street façade, and the first floor has been extended with a glass and metal framed sun porch.

The 1873 extension by Crisp turns the corner at the junction of Lower Guinea Street and Guinea Street. It closely matches the earlier building in style, though here the basement features simple basket-arched windows. The window design rises through the storeys, progressing from square-headed at the bottom through segmental and round-arched to dormers beneath segmental arched pediments.

Courtyard Elevation

Facing the courtyard, the hospital rises three storeys with square-headed windows framed by Bath stone Gibbs surrounds and Bath stone quoins. A gently curved single-storey entrance by Oatley was added in the 20th century to the right. Built of concrete beneath a flat roof, the main entrance is positioned to the left, flanked by blocked pilasters with Ionic capitals, with a single sash window to the porter's room on the right. Three further doors with three-light square fanlights (one now blocked) are located to the right, fitted with panelled doors in moulded architraves with heavy keystones. A 20th-century fire escape and enclosed walkway at second floor level have been added to the right of the south-west corner.

The position of the octagonal tower is marked by a small square tower projecting at second floor level over an arched recess. Projecting stair towers with Venetian windows are positioned immediately to either side, the right-hand one masked by the 20th-century walkway. A small porch with Roman Doric columns provides access to this range.

Chapel

The chapel, a gift of Mr Fenwick Richards, projects northwards at right angles into the courtyard from the southern range. Designed by Oatley and Lawrence, it is built of Bath stone ashlar at first floor level over a banded rusticated ground floor. It has an apsidal end to the north beneath a gabled roof, with three round-arched lancets at first floor and a blocked door at ground floor.

The east elevation at first floor level features two Venetian windows flanking a large cartouche carved by Gilbert Seale, bearing the date 1915 and the donor's initials, above a shaped door surround at ground floor.

King Edward VII Wing

Extending southwards from the eastern end of the original hospital is the King Edward VII Wing of 1912–14. It comprises a single long range oriented north to south, connected to the earlier building by a short corridor, with an apsidal end featuring loggias (now infilled and glazed) to the south. A distinctive feature of this building was its flat roof, which served as a garden for patients.

The ground and first floors are rusticated, with scored concrete above designed to resemble ashlar. The loggias at second and third floor have Doric columns on the second floor and Ionic columns on the third, the whole beneath a dentilled eaves. Each long side displays a series of tall Italianate concrete ventilation and chimney stacks divided into two stages by round-headed entablatures. Each stack has timber louvres flanked by columns with Ionic capitals on the outer face of the lower stage and four linked chimney pots with recesses between on the upper stage.

A sanitation block appears on the east elevation, beyond which is a shallow bay window at second floor marking the position of the former large labour ward. The ground slopes steeply downwards at the northern end, exposing a basement storey.

Pathology Laboratory

The former pathology laboratory lies to the north of the former laundry. Built to plans dated 1898, it has banded rustication to the ground floor with contrasting bands of blue pennant rubble and Bath stone above, rising to a large pediment with a Diocletian window. A central panelled door set in a Gibbs surround with a heavy keystone, inscribed on either side with 'PATHOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT', provides ground floor access.

At first floor level is a large central fixed window with narrower three-light windows to either side, all separated by blocked columns with Ionic capitals beneath an entablature with a plain frieze and dentilled cornice. The banded columns formerly rose through a further stage with an arcade of four round-headed lights separated by banded pilasters, rising to a shaped gable with ball finials at the apex and shoulders. Behind this formerly ran a long lantern providing light to the open hall below.

Isolation Block and Nurses' Accommodation

The isolation block and former nurses' accommodation of 1907 are positioned to the north of the site on either side of the Guinea Street entrance. The isolation block consists of two distinct sections connected centrally by a passage. Built of blue pennant rubble with Bath stone dressings and a pierced parapet of interconnecting circles, sanitary facilities were formerly provided in the two circular rusticated Bath stone turrets capped with ogee roofs on either side (east and west).

An oriel window at first floor on the north elevation sits beneath a gablet with a Diocletian window below. Windows are a mixture of sash windows and metal casements; those on the west elevation at first floor have been altered to create a door to a 20th-century fire escape. Dwarf rubble walls with railings link this elevation with the gatepiers of the Guinea Street entrance.

On the Guinea Street elevation, the nurses' accommodation features giant order rusticated Bath stone pilasters rising to a central pediment with oculus and swags above an oriel (matching that of the isolation hospital) at first floor level. It has a pierced parapet, with windows comprising timber sashes and metal casements. The west entrance façade has a large four-light window to each floor over a central entrance doorway with segmental head and flanking windows beneath a projecting moulding. The panelled door features a large glazed circular panel beneath a square fanlight.

Interior

As would be expected for buildings in continuous use, the hospital has undergone considerable internal alteration to meet changing standards of care. However, a number of features of note survive. The ground floor corridor giving access to the former surgeon's consulting rooms and casualty wards retains three slender cast-iron columns. The stair leading to the first floor wards has a cast-iron column newel with cast oval balusters. The former committee room, located on the ground floor within the octagonal tower, retains its compartmented ceiling and wood block flooring.

The chapel preserves its restrained decoration including doors and window fittings, along with a stained glass roundel bearing the hospital arms in memory of Annie C Robins, a former matron, and a commemorative plaque over the door in memory of Wilfred Martin Barclay, a former surgeon.

The panelled doors and room numbers of the resident staff and student rooms on the third floor of the King Edward VII building survive, though the rooms themselves have been much altered.

The pathological department retains its impressive queen post roof, although the lantern that formerly lit the open hall (now subdivided) has been lost. Similarly, the isolation hospital has been considerably altered, though its plan remains legible.

The nurses' accommodation of 1907 perhaps has the best internal survivals, retaining considerable joinery including its staircase, doors, windows and fire surrounds. It also preserves some decorative stained glass in the stair windows.

The former laundry of 1912, the nurses' home of 1921 and the out-patients extension of 1931 are not of special interest.

Subsidiary Features

To the east, near the former nurses' home of 1925, is a repositioned Portland stone fountain that formerly stood in the hospital courtyard. Funded by Joseph Storrs Fry, treasurer of the hospital, it was erected in 1906–7. It takes the form of a trefoil-shaped pool supporting a central pedestalled basin, all set on an octagonal plinth of three steps.