Former St Lawrence'S Hospital

The former St Lawrence's Hospital, built in 1818, was designed by John Foulston, with extensions around 1838 by George Wightwick and later additions in the 19th century. Constructed primarily of squared pink stone to the front of the later entrance wing, with rubble walls elsewhere, the building features a plinth, mid-floor string, segmental arches and coursed stone to the later 19th-century additions. The roofs are of dry slate to the front wing, rag slate elsewhere, with a central polygonal roof featuring a brick stack and radiating wings with hipped returns and axial brick stacks. A small octagonal roof serves a parapet stair at the rear.

The building follows a large panoptical plan with six original radial wings, each with late 19th-century additions. A tapered entrance addition connects the front wings with quadrant walls. The original windows are hornless sashes with glazing bars, with latticed oriels to the central block and additions. The symmetrical entrance block has a granite plinth and stucco pilasters, round-arched ground-floor openings, moulded architraves to first-floor segmental arches, moulded sills on brackets and a moulded eaves entablature, with moulded cast-iron gutters. The entrance is sheltered by a tripartite loggia with a central four-panel door and spoked fanlight, flanked by sashes with fanlight heads. Some wings feature triangular pediments above the last three bays, and symmetrical two-window fronts with first-floor oriels and central doorways, flanked by wide sashes, remain between many of the wings.

The interior remains uninspected. This is a notable and largely unaltered example of an early 19th-century hospital built on a panoptical plan.