Normandy House And Attached Railings

Normandy House and Attached Railings

Nos. 307 and 309 High Street, Cheltenham

A villa, later hospital, now offices, with attached iron area railings. The building dates from circa 1810–20 and is shown on The Post Office Map of 1820. A wing to the left was added in 1839 to serve as wards for 40 in-patients. Later alterations and restorations were undertaken around 1990.

The main structure comprises ashlar over brick with a concealed roof to the right and a slate mansard roof to the left. A brick off-centre stack serves the main range. The building is two storeys with five windows across the main elevation, supplemented by an added three-storey and attic section to the left (north). The left return contains a two first-floor window range.

The exterior features panelled pilasters running the full height between windows and at the ends, with a frieze and cornice embellished with a blocking course to the main range. The main range has 6/6 sash windows, taller at ground floor, with multi-pane windows to the left. The central entrance comprises a 6-fielded-panel door with side-lights and a wide arched patterned fanlight, set within a distyle Doric porch with architrave, frieze, cornice and blocking course. The range to the left has a frieze and cornice with a low balustrade to the second floor. Some 15/15 sashes remain to the left return.

Interior features survive in good condition. The hallway contains a niche to the right and a winding open-well stone staircase with shaped cantilevered treads and stick balusters with wreathed handrail, embellished with a panel of scrolled wrought-iron ornament to the landing. An upper semicircular hallway is also present. The hallway inner doorway has a fanlight with decorative glazing bars and coving. The main ground-floor reception room to the right features embellished acanthus cornices and ceiling friezes. An archway between front and rear rooms has a fluted architrave with flowers to the corners. Windows retain panelled reveals and shutters, and 6-panelled doors have reeded architraves. First-floor rooms retain embellished cornices.

The area railings feature an X-motif design, though some sections have been replaced.

The building is historically significant. It appears on Merrett's Map of 1834 as Segrave House, probably named after William Fitzhardinge Berkeley who became Lord Segrave in 1831 (and Earl Fitzhardinge in 1841). The villa was reputedly sold in 1839 and converted into Cheltenham's first General Hospital and Dispensary, when the left wing was added. However, George Rowe indicates the building was originally constructed as a dispensary in 1813, the year the Cheltenham General Hospital and Dispensary is known to date from, with wards for 40 in-patients added in 1839. The hospital closed in 1849 when a new facility opened on Sandford Road. The building was subsequently used as a hospital for officers invalided from the Crimean War (1853–56). Following this, the wards were reputedly used as dormitories for female student teachers prior to the erection of Shaftesbury Hall, St Georges Place in circa 1869. The building received a Cheltenham Civic Award for Restoration in 1991.