Blencathra Building is a Grade II listed building in the Cumberland local planning authority area, England. First listed on 11 April 1994. Former maternity ward. 7 related planning applications.
Blencathra Building
- WRENN ID
- first-oriel-sepia
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Cumberland
- Constituency
- Carlisle MP: Ms Julie Minns (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 11 April 1994
- Type
- Former maternity ward
- Address
- Blencathra Building, University of Cumbria, Fusehill Street, Carlisle, CA1 2HH
- OS grid reference
- NY 409 555
- Coordinates
- 54.89085, -2.92207
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Blencathra Building, formerly known as the City Maternity Hospital and part of the City General Hospital, is a former maternity ward that was originally a hospital wing of the Workhouse, built between 1863 and 1864 by Lockwood & Mawson. The building features Flemish bond brickwork set on a chamfered plinth, with all dressings made of calciferous sandstone, some of which are painted. It has quoined angle pilasters, string courses, and a dentilled cornice. The roof is hipped and covered with greenslate, and there are no chimneys.
The structure is two stories tall and consists of seven bays, with the last end bays on each side projecting and topped with pediments. It was designed to match the main workhouse building. A central 20th-century door is set within an original round-arched pilastered surround. The original sash windows, which feature glazing bars, have rounded stone arches with stone sills on the ground floor, while the upper floor windows are topped with segmental brick arches. The projecting bays have tripartite windows on the ground floor and two-light windows with a central colonnette above, all set in stone arches.
The listing also includes the lower three-bay flanking wings. The building is depicted as the hospital wing for Fusehill Workhouse on the 1865 Ordnance Survey map.
Local climate
Blencathra Building sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,100 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 87% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 80% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 51 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 93% of listed buildings. Of these, 27 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 7 applications
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
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