Wonford Hospital

SX 93 91 EXETER DRYDEN ROAD

871/15/10028 Wonford Hospital

II

Former private lunatic asylum. 1865-9 by W F Cross; theatre and recreation hall added 1912. Uncoursed stone with ashlar dressings. Slated roofs with stone coped gables and chimney stacks. Towers at front angles with conical roofs having dormers and surmounted by patterned cast iron balustrades. Jacobean style. Central administration block flanked by wards forming an open courtyard to the rear in which the former detached chapel now attached by the recreation hall and theatre. Mostly 3 stories. Central entrance approached by sweeping stone steps with open strapwork balustrades. Porch with round-arched central opening flanked by similar smaller windows and separated by pilasters supporting an entablature crowned by a strapwork balustrade; the dies have balls with obelisks. 1st floor canted bay window crowned by a similar ballustrade; above, a clock set in a coped Flemish pediment flanked by chimneys. Windows of stone transom and mullions throughout. Front range with alte1Dating gabled bays. Recreation hall and theatre are at 1st floor level in relation to main building; grow1d floor open with storerooms. Interior: retains original features. Recreation hall with low vaulted ceiling. Theatre with large sash windows; proscenium arch has twinned pilasters carrying small pediments and a low arch with a large keystone. Ceiling similar to hall but with a decorative cornice. Chapel in Early English style with 4-bay nave, transepts and apsidal chancel. This is at 1st floor level in relation to main building; open arched ground floor under the apse and W nave bay, rest of ground floor is enclosed storerooms. Lancet windows paired by trefoils in roundels and separated by buttresses. West end is a large rose comprising 4 large and 5 small oculi. Interior: Trusses to windbraced roof are supported on stiff-leaf brackets. The brackets of the choir arch have angels under short columns with stiff-leaf capitals. Choir and apse with timber ribbed vault.

Listing NGR: SX9375491723