Roundway Hospital (Main Building)

The main building of Roundway Hospital, originally the Wiltshire County Asylum, was constructed between 1849 and 1851 by T H Wyatt. The building was extended in 1858, 1863, 1867, and 1877 to accommodate a greater number of patients, with a recreation hall added in 1897-8. It is built of Bath stone ashlar with slate roofs, characterised by overhanging bracketed eaves and ashlar stacks. The towers are in a campanile style, featuring pyramid roofs and ventilation cowls shaped like octagonal tempietti with ogee roofs, all reflecting the Italianate style.

The building is a long, symmetrical front range of two and three stories. Five rear cross-wings form courtyards, originally serving as kitchens and exercise areas. The central administrative block is three stories high with a basement, with slightly projecting end and central bays. The end bays have canted angles, and the central bay is topped with a pediment. The window arrangement is 1-3-3-3-1 sashes; the first-floor windows are round-arched, with those in the central bay arcaded to correspond with the three void arcaded main entrance porch below, while the end bays are Venetian in style. Ground-floor windows have keystones, and arch-headed doorways are located in the re-entrant angles of the outer bays. A cast-iron area balustrade is attached to the front. Long two-story ranges flank this block, featuring short canted-angle cross wings, all in a similar style, although the glazing bar sashes have generally been replaced with plate glass. Rear elevations are in a similar style with some 19th-century metal-framed glazing.

A two-story block with a loading door and crane is located to the southwest of the kitchen. A central rear courtyard block has a barrel-vaulted vehicle entrance surmounted by a round-arched gable with a clock. There are two doorways on each side, retaining original boot-scrapers and incised keystones reading “chief male attendant” and “private” to the south, and “porter” and "private" to the north. The recreation hall, attached to the north, is constructed of red brick with a slate roof and cylindrical ridge ventilators, five bays long, with central entrances flanked by two groups of three staggered windows on each side. Each bay features a segmental relieving arch of bullnose bricks.

The interiors retain some original features but are mostly plain. The building was originally constructed as the Wiltshire County Pauper Lunatic Asylum, following the provisions of the 1845 Lunacy Act which mandated the construction of county asylums.