Glenside University Campus

Glenside University Campus

This former mental hospital, now part of the University of the West of England, was built in 1861 to the design of Henry Crisp, with subsequent additions by Crisp and George Oatley. It is constructed of squared, snecked Pennant rubble with limestone dressings and slate hipped and gabled roofs with stone stacks featuring cornices.

The building follows a pavilion plan with a central administration block, a rear recreation hall, and additions extending to the north and north-west. The architecture is Italianate in style. The central administration block rises three storeys and comprises a five-bay range. It features rusticated quoin stones, plat bands on each floor, and deep corbelled eaves. Two-storey canted bays flank the central round-arched doorway. Plate-glass sash windows with segmental heads are set throughout, with round-arched windows to the middle of the first floor and ovolo mouldings beneath the arches. Behind the administration block stands the recreation hall, topped by a clock tower with clasping pilasters, three-light louvered belfry windows, clocks to each face, and a shallow lead roof. Symmetrical wings extend from the central block at two storeys with central gables and a three-storey tower featuring pyramidal roofs. The wing projections terminate in gables flanked by squat towers; the inner towers contain a central blind round arch with segmental-headed ground-floor windows and round-arched first-floor windows, whilst the outer gables are similar but wider. Later blocks follow a comparable style.

A two-storey laundry and powerhouse block to the north-west houses steam engines on the ground floor and the laundry on the first floor. The tall square laundry chimney no longer survives. The steam engines, manufactured by Bellis & Morcam of Birmingham, are reciprocating steam self-generation power plants dated to 1958 and 1960. They ceased operation in 1979 and represent machinery once common throughout much of the NHS hospital sector and British manufacturing industry.

The interior retains significant original features. The recreation hall, now a student dining room, displays a barrel-vaulted and coffered ceiling with a balcony to the west supported on scrolled brackets. Stone mullioned windows with stained glass light the north and west sides. Most corridors retain coffered ceilings, though some are hidden by suspended ceilings. The corridor to the south wing features encaustic tiles to the floor and glazed tiled walling. The library contains a coffered ceiling supported on slender Tuscan columns.

The Bristol Lunatic Asylum was established following the Lunatic Asylums Act of 1845, which made the erection of county pauper asylums compulsory. Bristol's asylum is one of 63 such institutions built between 1845 and 1888. The Fishponds site was approved in March 1857, and construction commenced in 1858. The asylum opened in 1861, though the building remained incomplete at that time. The pavilion plan, a characteristic feature of asylum design by this date, was later enlarged in stages, and the spaces between the wings became enclosed gardens. The building was nicknamed 'The Lunatic Pauper Palace' on account of its cost and architectural grandeur. The principal rooms, including the recreation hall and library, survive with their original features substantially intact.