Horton Road Hospital including area railings

Horton Road Hospital including area railings

Hospital for patients with mental conditions, begun in 1814 and opened for admissions in 1823. The original design was created by William Stark of Edinburgh between 1811 and his death in 1813, subsequently modified by John Wheeler of Gloucester. The building underwent many alterations and additions throughout the 19th century, principally: a west wing extension (1842–1846), additions to the central block and its wings (1857–1860), a south wing and detached north block (1871), and a range linking the north wing to the north block (1885).

The building is constructed mostly of stuccoed brick with stone details, or brick painted white. The 1857 and 1885 additions are of faced brick. Most roofs are shallow pitched; the original building features a notable example of fireproof construction, whilst later roofs are of Welsh slate or composition.

The original building forms a symmetrical, large-scale composition with restrained use of classical details. The layout comprises a large, three-storey crescent with the central main entrance on the axis of a forecourt entered from Horton Road, a central axial wing at the rear, and flanking north and south wings originally of two storeys, linked to the outer ends of the crescent range by single-storey loggias. Both wings and loggias were subsequently heightened to three storeys. The crescent range was widened at the back to provide access corridors on all floors. Within the arc of the crescent, the basement storey opens into a deep railed area with a facing circuit of casemate cells below courtyard level, designed to contain difficult patients. Later accommodation was provided by a south-facing range extending east from the south end of the south wing, and by a large north block, originally detached but later linked to the north wing by the insertion of a single-storey range.

The exterior is mostly three storeys with basements. The front of the crescent range comprises eighteen bays divided centrally by the entrance doorway and a slightly extruded bay at either end (1:9:1:9:1). Each end bay has a shallow, full-height segmental-arched recess and a two-storey bow. The basement area walls are faced in rusticated ashlar with entrance doorways to the casemate cells. The crescent range front features a raised stone band at first and second-floor level, bracketed eaves, and at each end a projecting pedimental gable. At the centre, the entrance doorway and a flanking window on each side are framed within three bays by an applied Roman Doric order of half columns on pedestals with entablature. On all floors in each bay are sashes with glazing bars: five by five panes on the ground and first floors, five by four panes on the second floor.

The south and north flanking wings are each of seven bays with a projecting bay at each end. On the fronts between the projecting bays is an arcade with a continuous band at impost level, a recessed panel with a sash in each bay, and the arches infilled. Raised bands appear at first and second-floor levels, with sashes featuring five by five panes on the first floor and five by four panes on the second floor.

The former loggias linking the ends of the crescent with the flanking wings are each of three bays with applied pilasters and entablature on the ground floor, each bay infilled later with a sash, and sashes added to the first and second floors. The south-facing range has a symmetrical front of two storeys with a third recessed storey, all of eleven bays, flanked at the ends by projecting three-storey wings each of three bays. A raised band appears at each floor level with a brick dentil eaves cornice. On the roof at the centre of the range stands a massive octagonal flue stack on a stone base with diagonal volutes at the angles and a bracketed crowning cornice.

At the rear of the crescent range, the brick wall created when the range was widened has an applied shallow giant arcade on the ground and first floors with stone impost bands to the piers and keystones in the arches. A raised band appears at second-floor level with a panelled eaves cornice. On all floors in each bay, except where blocked by later additions, are sashes with glazing bars. The central rear wing is of three storeys and basement with projecting service or stair turrets on each side at the ends and in the centre of its original length, and at the end of the later westward extension. Raised bands appear at each-floor level with sashes featuring glazing bars on all floors in each bay. The north block has a symmetrical north-facing front of three storeys and fifteen bays, flanked at the ends by projecting three-storey wings each of three bays, with raised bands at each-floor level and a brick dentil eaves cornice to the hipped roof.

Internally, some of the casemate cells entered from the area in the crescent retain stone slab beds. To the left of the entrance hall is an open-well stair with stone treads, cast-iron stick balusters and swept timber balustrade. Many rooms in the crescent and flanking ranges retain original joinery including architraves, doors and window shutters. In the original portion of the rear axial wing on the first floor is a large auditorium called the ballroom, now with a 20th-century false ceiling concealing the original moulded cornice. In the added west end of the axial wing on the first and second floors are secure cells for holding hospital inmates, each with a cast-iron framed sash with glazing bars in conjunction with a timber sliding sash. Some original cell doors retain hatches and peepholes.

The proposal to provide a hospital for patients with mental conditions in Gloucester was initiated in 1792 by Sir Onesiphorous Paul, former High Sheriff of Gloucester and social reformer. In July 1794, a general meeting of subscribers was held which included Dr Edward Jenner and Robert Raikes. Construction was supervised by John Collingwood for a committee representing subscribers, the County of Gloucestershire and the City of Gloucester. The hospital was designed to provide accommodation for three categories of patients: the wealthy, the poor on parochial relief, and the poor not on relief, with segregation of the sexes.

The cast-iron tiles covering the roof of the crescent range and the original portion of the axial wing are of special interest as an early example of the very rare use of cast-iron tiles for roofing. Each tile bears the moulded inscription "CARTERS PATENT 1827 TOLL END". Evidence of mid-19th-century installation of a circulating hot-air central heating system survives in the form of cast-iron grilles and flues, also of special interest.

This is an outstanding early 19th-century hospital complex, particularly notable for its advanced plan form, constructional techniques and fine neo-classical façade.