Digby Hospital

The following buildings shall be added to the list; WOODWATER LANE 1. 1092 SX 99 SE/1200 Digby Hospital II 2. Hospital, formerly Lunatic Asylum. 1882-6 by R Stark Wilkinson architect for Exeter City Council. Red brick, faience details, slate and lead roofs. H plan with separate male and female sides. Italianate with some "Queen Anne" references. Entrance (north) front for reception and services has 2 storey centre and single storey wings, 3 storey towers. South front (the wards) has 3 storey gable end - on centrepiece, 2 storey wings with 3 returned hipped roofed gables blocks to both wings, 3 storey end block towers with 4th storey for water tanks. Tripartite entrance block elevation has 2 outer 2 bay pavilions, centre with 2 ground and 2 first floor sashes with lower plate glass and upper glazing barred sashes. Slightly recessed centre has 2 ground and 2 first floor windows. Arched doorcase under bracketted and pedimented canopy, plaque with date 1885. Moulded faience end pilasters to pavilions and architraves to all door and window openings. Conical roofs with finials to pavilions. Flanking recessed single storey wings with Male and Female entrances, storey towers. South (ward) elevation has dominant 3 bay centrepiece with 3 basement segmental arched openings, piano nobile with 3 arched headed windows with fixed glazing bar fanlight heads with dividing pilasters, balustrades and architraves. Banded pediment with cornices and raised centre forming base to partly dismantled bell cote. Arched windows to returns, all details in faience. 8 bay recessed wings with 3 bay returned gables flanked by conical roofed towers repeated in 2 further wings and 2 further returns, faience details to openings, string courses and cornices throughout. Stacks cut down at eaves. Distinctive end stopping element to facades provided by 4 storey towers with bell profile lead conical roofs with finials, faience details. The design was the result of a competition entered by 40 and selected from 8 finalists. Faience details supplied at a cost of £6000 half by a Chudleigh, Devon, firm and half by Doulton of Lambeth, an unusually rich decorative treatment for an asylum. See Builder XLIII 16 September 1882, pp 358-9, 376-377

Listing NGR: SX9582191257