Purdown Hospital, Beech House

This is a house, dating to circa 1764, originally built for Joseph Harford and later used as a hospital office. It is constructed of Bath stone ashlar with a copper roof, and features a double-depth plan. The building is two storeys high, with a basement and attic, and has a five-window front. It is designed in a mid-Georgian style. A central Doric portico with four columns on pedestals, an entablature, and a cornice is flanked by ramped steps. A glazed door with decorative bars and an elaborate fanlight provides entrance to the main floor, with narrow windows on either side. Steps lead down to a basement door with a floating cornice supported by brackets. The central first-floor window has a shouldered architrave and cornice on consoles, while the remaining windows have aluminium frames. A 20th-century copper mansard roof and a right-hand extension are also present. A rear entrance is reached by six steps and an iron handrail leading to an Ionic porch, with "BEECH HOUSE" inscribed on the entablature, and contains a semicircular doorway with a six-panel door. The interior features a fine hall divided by fluted Doric columns and a curved entablature with triglyphs, continuing around the room. It includes an acanthus ceiling rose, panelled shutters, reveals, soffits, and panelled doors. An elliptical arch leads to a dogleg staircase with a wreathed, veneered rail and fluted banisters. The building was originally known as Stapleton Grove and later became the home of Raja Rammohun Roy Bahadoor, a Hindu reformer, who is buried at Arno's Vale Cemetery in Brislington.