The former King Edward VII Hospital

The former King Edward VII Hospital

A tuberculosis sanatorium, later hospital, originally called the King Edward VII Sanatorium. Built between 1903 and 1906, it was designed by the architectural practice Adams, Holden and Pearson, with Charles Holden now recognised as responsible for the elevations. The building is constructed of red and grey bricks laid in alternate courses with stone dressings, and is roofed in tiles.

The building employs a free Tudor style with a butterfly plan. The northern section comprises a three-storey entrance and administration block, symmetrically arranged with the main entrance set within a recessed gabled bay. The entrance is framed by a central stone door surround topped by the Royal Coat of Arms, with a bay window and balcony above. The front elevation contains twenty casement windows with stone mullions and transoms, with dormers rising to the attic. Projecting wings with flanking low towers and gables extend to left and right, with further wings added later.

The southern patients' wing is symmetrically planned with a taller central block of three storeys, flanked by two-storey and basement wings that cant slightly forward to form a sun-trap. The elevation comprises fifty-three bays in total. The central block features a triple gable at its centre with end gables, while all windows are fitted with green louvred shutters. The ground floor displays a central arched entrance with tall stone-mullioned windows and six stone-pilastered attached garden alcoves for patients' use. The side wings follow a similar arrangement. Balconies and French windows throughout the patients' wing were designed to enable beds to be wheeled outdoors for open-air treatment, with awnings provided for bad weather.

The entrance hall contains the foundation stone laid by Edward VII. The ground floor is lined throughout in Doulton's Carrara ware, a semi-glazed terracotta. A galleried landing with wooden balustrade and columns rises above. The dining hall is similarly lined in Doulton's Carrara ware decorated with abstract patterns, designed to enable easy disinfection. The ceiling features a shallow barrel vault with strong ribs, the edges ornamented with plasterwork by George Bankart. Symmetrically placed on either side of the southern garden room are two recreation rooms, accessed through a lobby with a pillared screen opening into a lower main space simply decorated for ease of cleaning.

The sanatorium was conceived following Edward VII's visit to the TB Sanatorium at Falkenstein. Sir Ernest Cassel, the King's financial adviser whose daughter had died of tuberculosis, funded the construction with a donation of £200,000. A committee established by the King investigated the best medical approaches to tuberculosis, which at the time affected approximately a quarter of a million people in the country. This research directly influenced the building's design, including the butterfly plan, southern aspect for ventilation, and the provision of balconies and French windows. The site, chosen for its surrounding pine woods thought beneficial for those with breathing difficulties, unfortunately proved subject to dense mists and lacked adequate water supply, which was essential for the hydropathic treatments the sanatorium offered.

The building was designed to accommodate 100 tuberculosis patients, with the plan dividing the sexes: the western half housed male patients and the eastern half female patients. The ground floor was allocated to those paying lower fees, while the first-floor centre block, containing seven bedrooms and a sitting room for each sex, served higher-paying patients. Patients of different sexes and social classes were kept strictly separate. The sanatorium was widely praised for its architecture by contemporary critics, though the medical press criticised its extravagant planning. It proved highly influential in the design of subsequent sanatoria and helped promote a more domestic character in hospital design generally.